Less than a week after a photo surfaced of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Magic Johnson maskless at SoFi Stadium, County Supervisor Katheryn Barger has ratcheted up the pressure on health officials to modify L.A.’s strict mask mandate for outdoor mega-events before the Super Bowl kicks off there on February 13.After the mayor was spotted maskless at the NFC Championship Game, Barger issued a statement calling for an end to “blanket Covid masking policies.” Shortly thereafter, Barger sent a little-noticed official request to the County Public Health Department, asking it to “revisit the masking requirements” and align with the state’s less-stringent guidance for outdoor mega-events.Without mentioning the mayor by name Barger observed, “This past weekend, we witnessed more than 70,000 fans in attendance for the National Football League NFC Championship game at SoFi Stadium, with a vast majority not wearing masks.” A quick glance at the “Rams Fam Cam” from the game confirms that statement.
Barger called the lack of compliance “extremely discouraging.”Barger said that L.A. Public Health officials have indicated “we have not observed any Covid-19 spikes resulting from prior games this season from games at that stadium.” She also maintained that she fully expects next week’s Super Bowl, also at SoFi, “will see even lower masking compliance.”Failure to make the change would, she maintained, “again call into question why we have stricter County mandates in place that are neither followed nor enforced, causing more feelings of frustration for residents who have been subject to masking requirements more strictly enforced in other settings like schools, restaurants, and retail.”The the logic of easing a regulation simply
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