Nearly every adult ICU bed in Oregon is occupied, driven by an uptick in respiratory viruses.
Portland-area hospitals are operating at a “crisis” level for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began.
The dire picture has prompted state health officials to implore people to slap their masks on, once again, to protect against a triple threat of covid, flu and RSV as people travel and gather indoors this holiday season.
But like nearly every community confronting a third pandemic winter, the entreaty is just that — a plea.
Not a mandate.
Health officials in a state that was among the last to end an indoor mask requirement in March now characterize mandates as a distraction. Instead, they are counting on Americans to voluntarily don one of the most effective tools for avoiding sickness.
Mandates “have been extremely politicized, polarized and divisive,” said Rachael Banks, director of the Oregon Health Authority’s public health division. “We’re really trying to focus on the behavior and not getting caught in the crossfire of that particular mandate.”
Officials in New York and Los Angeles are also strongly recommending people cover their faces, without new requirements for anyone to actually do so. New York Mayor Eric Adams (D), who has resisted bringing back mask mandates, put on a mask Tuesday as he urged others to do the same.
A community college on Long Island attempted to issue a mask mandate this month but has since pulled back.
Just a handful of public institutions are reimposing such mandates, including the Philadelphia school system, Passaic schools in New Jersey, the State University of New York at Purchase and Oakland, Calif., for government buildings……..
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/12/22/mask-mandate-covid-tripledemic/