Earlier this week, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) assembled a Rules Advisory Committee (RAC) with the goal of moving to make the state’s indoor mask mandate “permanent.”

KATU reported that the committee major stakeholders in the state, with representatives from the hospitality industry, the business sector, and faith communities being involved. The meeting between OHA and RAC reportedly lasted about two hours.

The medical director for communicable diseases and immunizations with OHA, Dr. Paul Cieslak, tried to defend the “permanent” mask mandate by saying it isn’t actually permanent because it can be repealed.

“Permanent means indefinite. It doesn’t necessarily mean permanent,” Cieslak said. “We can repeal it as well, but we are only allowed to have a temporary rule for 180 days, and anything that goes beyond 180 days, we cannot extend it.”

Some representatives attending the meeting expressed concerns about being able to enforce an indoor mask mandate that is permanent.

“Getting people to comply is getting harder,” said Paloma Sparks from the Oregon Business & Industry Association, according to KEZI.

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Governor Kate Brown (D) reinstated the mask mandate back in August as the Delta variant of COVID-19 was surging. While OHA repealed the outdoor mask mandate last month, the indoor mask mandate was kept in place.

“We continue to see a concerning pattern of COVID-19 spread throughout the state, with the heaviest concentrations found in counties with lagging vaccination rates,” OHA Director Pat Allen said in November.

Many health experts have spoken out against indefinite mask mandates.

“We may have a baseline rate of COVID cases hovering around where they are now in the Southeast forever,” Johns Hopkins Professor Marty Makary told Fox News last month. “We are entering an endemic phase, and the question we need to ask as a society is, do we want a perpetual society with people masked?”

“And the marginal benefit of masking is diminishing as the prevalence declines,” he continued. “Also, in many instances, we’re requiring masks of people at the absolute lowest risk, and by insisting on throwing the kitchen sink at virus transmission, we will have to pay the piper somehow. That may come in the form of a loss of human connection, more increased mental health problems, and in children a series of problems including issues in development and speech development and other downsides.”

OHA policy specialist Ilana Kurtzi said that the draft permanent rule would be released to the public by mid-December.

This piece was written by James Samson on December 5, 2021. It originally appeared in RedVoiceMedia.com and is used by permission.

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