Opinion: End to mask mandate led to more cases

Dayana Bottger, Ana Polar and Kiessy Dominguez put on masks whereas strolling by downtown Salt Lake Metropolis on Friday, Jan. 7, 2022. State lawmakers struck down a Salt Lake County masks mandate that was purported to be in impact for 30 days.

Kristin Murphy, Deseret Information

Saturday, Jan 22, I used to be at a basketball recreation for little women. The Legislature had simply negated the power of cities or counties within the state to mandate masks or vaccines or something. I seemed round me and observed that just one particular person had a masks on, and I joined him.

I requested among the others why they didn’t have masks on, as we have been all sitting shut collectively. They laughed at me, and mentioned, “The governor simply eradicated the masks mandate! We don’t should put on masks now.”

I silently guessed that the COVID-19 issues in our state would enhance, which they did. On Jan. 25, the CDC COVID Knowledge tracker listed Utah as having the best degree of transmission of COVID-19 in america. On Jan. 27, the Utah Division of Well being reported 843 Utahns have been hospitalized with the coronavirus, far exceeding the earlier document of 606 sufferers in December 2020.

Research at the moment are proving that masking is efficient in slowing down the unfold of the COVID-19 variants, and whereas a vaccinated particular person could take a look at optimistic, an unvaccinated particular person is 11.3 instances extra more likely to die from COVID-19 issues than a totally vaccinated particular person. However many Utahns consider all of that info is simply bunk. I assume that they'd simply relatively expertise COVID-19 in particular person. It seems our Legislature does characterize lots of its constituents.

Fred Ash

Sandy