Just when you thought it was safe to take your breaths each day with no mask on, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners made it a law once again for everyone in the county to mask up when inside restaurants, workplaces, businesses, government offices or any other enclosed public place.
Beginning on Friday, Aug. 13 at 5 p.m. the new county ordinance goes into effect.
Violators will get a warning for a first offense, a $300 fine for the second, a $500 fine for the next violation and a $1,500 fine for each subsequent incident of masklessness indoors.
The Board of Commissioners adopted the new mask mandate in an attempt to address the spread of COVID-19 in Guilford County. The board did so at an emergency Board of Commissioners meeting held via Zoom on Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 10. The decision was split straight down party lines on a 7-to-2 vote, with Republican Commissioners Justin Conrad and Alan Perdue casting the no votes.
Before the vote, county staff from the Guilford County Health Division and from the Emergency Management Division presented the board with information about the growth of the new Delta variant of the coronavirus in the county.
The board didn’t set any specific guidelines for eliminating the mandate down the road. However, staff told the board that the COVID-19 numbers in the county would be monitored closely and that that information would be provided to the board on a regular basis.
The board did make an exception to the rule: Those people who work in an office alone – with no one else around – won’t be required to wear a mask.
The commissioners’ meeting was a rare one in that they met “as the Board of Health.”
Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Skip Alston referred to the other elected leaders as “board members” throughout the meeting and he explained that was because, in that environment, they are acting as Board of Health members, not as commissioners.
Guilford County the armpit of North Carolina. You can drive to other counties nearby to shop and dine.
I’d prefer to keep the fact that neighboring counties aren’t run by such big morons a secret. I don’t want a bunch of people from Guilford county coming to my county infesting/infecting it with their screwed up ideas.
It’s like how people in Texas feel about transplants from California.
Tom we all are not so bad. Please don’t judge us by the idiots that are in charge of Guilford County. We’re not all idiots. Just waiting to vote.
Unbelievable. What is this country coming to. Socialism. We have GOT to vote and get these idiots out of office. Shop anywhere but Guilford Co.
Not Raleigh Durham area. You know. The place with the highest concentration of doctorate degrees in NC.
100% Not only will I do that, but looks like it is back to neighboring states – or further South – on the weekends. Who knows? Maybe Skip & Co want to destroy all small businesses and non chain restaurants in the county. Great first step, Skippy.
Sadly you are 100% correct. Our “leaders” embrace insanity – dong the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
Kernersville is close by and tons of places within a short drive for the weekend trips we are filling the calendar with. We spent the last 18 months traveling, looks like we’ll spend the next 6 months doing the same. At least now the drive is so short we can escape for everything – dinner, groceries, movies, shopping
You know doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is the meaning of insanity…
I’m giving my kids normalcy away from Guilford County……. The result we’ve had for over a year and fully expect to keep getting.
County leaders can keep running business to the ground to not control what is now an endemic virus with a mask. Maybe destroying Guilford County IS their goal. Austin has been trying for decades….. and making consistent progress!!!
So True.
Please drive on sweetie….
Exactly
“Board members” with the support of Mandate Mayor putting their foot right on everyone neck. Masks must be worn on restaurants unless you are eating……masks must be worn but properly or not is up to who? More fear mongering and virtue signaling….probably angling for some infrastructure payola. No guidelines for lifting mandate means that everyone might be required to get 21 booster vaccines and we all wear masks until next election.
Letting Supreme Leader Skip dictate health policy gets you what you would expect…..knee jerk meaningless fear mongering. Either the vaccine works or it doesn’t but half wearing masks is just more kabuki theater.
Dictatorship. There is no scientific reason for this mandate. If there is, please cite the data and thresholds that support the mandate. Also, the “no end in sight,” open ended BS will lead us into year two with 7 elected officials (yes I know there are 9 commissioners but only 7 are making decisions), 7 people, making decisions for the rest of us. Quit the scare mongering. Skip states we do not have herd immunity in Guilford County. How does he know that? Vaccine rates are not the only stat for herd immunity. They way Dr. Skip stated the 51% vaccine number does not consider those who have had the virus or those with antibodies. Set an end date or goal of threshold numbers. Otherwise the control and keeping people on the reservation will never stop.
Wait until AOC becomes the general. This is just a rehearsal
…because it all worked so well last time…
Right ! It worked even better because remember we had limited capacity, distancing, curfews 😉
Except for medical grade N95 masks, face masks are completely ineffective in preventing the transmission of the Covid-19 virus. They’re a virtue signalling charade.
So then what is the real reason for all this?
Could it be to accustom us to complying with government diktats, no matter how peremptory, ad hoc, and unconstitutional?
I am beginning to think you need to follow the money trail. Either federal money or personal profit.
Masks are being forced upon us in order to demoralize us, and make us feel like they’re giving us something when they let us take them them off for a few minutes.
“They are dismantling the sleeping middle class. More and more people are becoming poor. We are their cattle. We are being bred for slavery.”
Tom, I believe you’re right.
Nurse cousin from Fla said hardly no one is in ICU . All on regular floors . Plenty of ICU beds available . Politics in Guilford County mandate .
When is enough Enough?
When enough people wake up and say “NO!”
When we all refuse to comply. Can’t arrest an entire city. These are not laws and we need to stop giving them control.
Go to another county for shopping and restaurants. They just want to control us all.
NO, the voters of Guilford County put these clowns in office. The voters of Guilford County need to stay there, and put up with what they voted for. Maybe then, they’ll wake up and fix it in the next election. Don’t go screwing up other counties that act like they have a common sense.
This is simple, until this is lifted I will not do any business nor go indoors within Guilford County. I will gladly go to one of the surrounding counties that consider the will of the citizens in their decisions. Politicians seem to forget they are elected to do the will of the people.
Yup! Any restaurant in the area who enforces is just destroying their own business. People are sick of this. FORGET YOUR MASK. MAKE THEM ASK. Shop in other counties. I bet Rockingham and other nearby counties would love the extra business. And travel to other states to get away for the weekend. There are plenty of sane states in the immediate area. Heck in a few hours you can be in other states relaxing and enjoying a weekend away from Skip & co. And the 7 “leaders” of our community went along with it, without a thought. Great job!!
Same here. We won’t mask or lock away this or any other respiratory virus. It hasn’t worked in the last 18 months and won’t suddenly start working in the next 6 months. Based on all available data from Israel and Gibraltar we won’t hit some magic vaccination rate to make it go away. All this is doing is destroying Guilford County, and especially the next generation. I’m done. I love this place but this mandate is only about left wing political science and until the business community stands up to it we will spend our time and treasure elsewhere.
Looked up case counts for Guilford county to see if this was just a reaction to national trends or local trends. Over the last month, new case counts have jumped from mid teens to 150 new cases per day. That sharp of a spike is rather dramatic. I am sure there will be noise from anti-maskers and such but as Barney always said…”nip in the bud’.
Ask the commissioners or city council how the vaccinated breakdown by east, west, north, and south. You may be surprised.
Only weirdos post a statement about statistics to look up yet share no insight. Just another nutter.
You had no insight on your “looked up case counts” statement. How do we know you looked up anything? Post a link or shut up Chris. Isn’t that what you’re telling DTF to do?
Anyway, here is a link to the “nutter’s” information.
https://guilford-covid19-data-guilfordgis.hub.arcgis.com/
If you care to go down to the maps, it clearly shows that northeast and southeast Greensboro/Guilford County have the highest infection rates, just as they said.
Good one, Don.
Glad you called out that nutter, “Chris”.
Yes because it worked so well in Dec/Jan/Feb wave when we were masked, distanced, and curfewed. Look up Hope Simpson, and then get back to me
It worked very well. Our hospitals where never over crowded like Texas and Florida are now experiencing. The curve flattened out very well for us. Then the vaccine came on mark and we almost made it back to normal. Except a bunch of people bought into a political agenda that masks and vaccines don’t work. Only 50% of Guilford county is vaccinated and wow….we have a 10 spike in covid cases with the new variant.
The fools that believe this is a Government conspiracy or a means to control are sad. How do you live believing the world is out to get you? Sure democrats are in control right now. They are not evil. They are not out to ‘get you’. They just have different political points of view.
Reading these posts is sad. I will say again, discuss these topics of vaccine and masks with your medical professionals. NOT YOUR POLITICIANS or TV TALKING HEADS.
As I understand it, the spike is composed of nearly all unvaccinated. So the vaccinated people should be able to carry on life as normal. The mask mandates and other measures should apply only to the unvaccinated.
Interesting about the 50%. Our county commissioners and city council is overwhelmingly democrat. Which means the city voted Democrat. Overwhelmingly! So 50% are not the MAGA people you wish it to be. Look at the National stats for who is getting vaccinated and who is not.
“Cases” are not the same as being sick. Cases are being determined by using a faulty PCR test that the FDA recently recalled because it can’t identify Covid distinctly from the flu or the common cold. But for some reason the test is being allowed to be used until the end of the year. The test is so poor that the more tests you give, the more “cases” you’re going to get, although most are false positives. And yet this is the basis for requiring all of us to wear dirty bacteria laden masks? It’s illogical, and it’s unhealthy.
Now you are just making crap up. I had the decency to share actual data. How but you do the same. Or did you make broad stroke assumptions because of a meme you read on facebook?
If we were more than the current 55% vaccination rate, the case count wouldn’t be as relevant but nutters think vaccine is evil so here to us not becoming FL, LA or TX where hospital capacity is becoming a real issue. That is….not a Facebook meme issue.
Thank you, Chris. Finally, a voice of reason.
There were only three to five people in the emergency waiting room at Wesley Long hospital last weekend. I don’t believe the numbers . More people have probably died from the common cold in one of slum lord Skips rentals . My body my choice . Isn’t that the liberal motto . Covid has a 99.95 survival rate . Abortion has a 100% death rate . All political.
How does me pulling my shirt up over my face stop germs? Most masks are simple layers of cotton.
Unless a medical grade mask is in use, a mask is about as effective at stopping germs as a chicken wire fence is at stopping flies. The holes in the mask are far larger than the germs. Even layered up, they might stop the blobs of spit shooting out of someone screaming at the sky, but the germs, just like the air we breathe, fit right through. It’s a matter of scale.
Remember India? Fields of Burning Bodies!! We’re Doomed!
yeah, not so much any more. Infection rate fell off a cliff. 5% vaccination rate there, and they have more than a billion(1,000,000,000) people.
calm down.
“Board of Health” is this fishy to anyone else? How many physicians are on this “Board of Health?”
Dr. Skip & The Weenies, of course.
If Guilford County wants to mandate masks, let’s use the only tool against this tyranny; our wallets. Let’s not spend one dollar in Guilford County. If we’re to be free , it’s always been up to the free citizen to exercise our Constitutional liberties. Resist this denial of personal liberty.
I heard that their “threshold” for removing the mandate is 70% of adults vaccinated. We have been stuck in the 50’s for weeks, it will take forever to get to 70%. Let the people make their own decision whether they want to wear a mask – it should be a personal decision, not a government mandate.
Here’s an interesting tidbit no one is mentioning: For many months there were countless unnecessary tests performed, I have had 20 myself as part of our protocols at work and never had the 1st symptom or concern. As things have cooled off far fewer people are being tested. Those would be folks with known exposures or symptoms. Wouldn’t it seem to reason that if you are testing those who are likely exposed rather than everyone, that you would more quickly reach that 5% positive rate they seem to be so worried about?
If we were following the science, masks would not be mandates. If we were following the freedoms we are/should be allowed in America, masks would not be mandated. Or shots!!!
So, since the Committee is “acting” as the Board of Health “ we can all act like we believe masks really work. Short of verified N95 masks or above masks are simply a nuisance. The numbers provided are skewed to favor King Skip and his band of merry men.
Leadership in every level of government has failed to communicate truthfully regarding this virus.
I’ve always enjoyed dining out and shopping in other counties, time to start favoring communities that are run by sensible people instead of the HERD OF FOOLS representing Guilford. county.
Our elected officials do not need to be setting policies based on opinions and bad science. I’d like to know which scientific studies were considered before making this ruling? I’d bet money that no studies were looked at. There have been numerous studies that prove masks don’t help stop the spread of any virus, Covid included. There have also been studies that show masks are dangerous to our health, cutting oxygen supplies to the body and creating health risks due to the large amount of bacteria that grows in masks after just a short time of wearing them.
I guess we’re getting to the point where suing the county and city will be the only way we can get them to listen to science and logic. Until then, unified non-compliance is the answer.
What exactly are they hoping to accomplish with this?? Does anyone really believe we going to mask or lock away Covid? Its hasn’t worked for 18 months, but it is supposed to work this time? Isn’t that the definition of insanity? And it will go on at least until January 8, 2022?
Our “leaders,” well, 7 of them in Guilford County, have IQ’s well into the bottom quintile despite egos in the top 1%.
Covid is here, it’s not going anywhere. We are all going to get exposed to some variant of this virus. Masks don’t stop aerosols, they stop human bonding. Aerosol literally means “dissolved in air.” Masks don’t provide separate air supplies. Hiding from life and other people suppresses the immune system and makes those people hiding more susceptible to any virus once they eventually reenter society.
All this nonsense is driving people, businesses, and spending out of Guilford County. My household will spending as much time and money outside of Guilford County as we can until the insanity stops. We’ve traveled regularly for the last 18 months. We will keep doing it. In fact, last night we booked trips for 3 of the next 6 weekends outside of Guilford County. We also put together a list of restaurants we’re going to try in Kernersville.
The only “science” this is about is political science.
Our advice to our kids – when you grow up we will help you start a life somewhere that actually cares about families, the business community, and most importantly, children. This community will be full of very damaged, socially impaired, and uneducated young adults in 15-20 years. No one in your family voted for it, no one in your family caused it, and no one in your family, including you, has any obligation to bear the cost of these terribly ideologies. We will follow you.
2 republicans vs 5 Democrats. Not surprising. They’re getting ready to steal another election. This tells me they are planning on keeping people at home again very soon.
7-2. There are 9 commissioners, 7 of who are Democrat
I, for one, will drive 20 minutes north or 25 minutes south to adjacent counties to shop and dine. I do feel bad for our local businesses. Vote them out of office! Most are there for self serving goals anyway. Wonder if this will be enforced at Skippers Hot Dogs on East Market (owned by Skip Alston)? There is a sign there that boast over 4 million weenies have been sold … do the math. Perhaps he need to stick with something he is good at. Politics it ain’t.
There are other counties to shop in that use common sense unlike Guilford County run by Dictator Alston. Also why should the citizens in Guilford County have to wear masks when unvaccinated/Covid positives are streaming over the border in droves? There is absolutely no common sense whatsoever in any of the Democratic county commissioners!
Hear, hear!
“Board of Health”???
Maybe next week they can meet as the “Grand Council of The Planet Krypton”.
Election cycle is coming up. Fraudulent Mail in Ballots? I smell a RAT!!
To all the deniers and clueless, this pandemic process is evolving. The virus is mutating. It seeks to reproduce and seeks an unvaccinated, incompletely vaccinated or falsely vaccinated human host. It used to be the old, the infirmed, the immunocompromised. The virus is now targeting our children. Adults can be carriers too. Folks, the mask requirement, distancing and good air flow are the basics. If you are unvaccinated you are contributing to the pandemic prolongation. It’s not over yet. The playbook has to be flexible. The virus is flexible. How hard is this to comprehend? It’s not a conspiracy and not a hoax. It’s a reality, people. Help! Our hospitals will soon be even more inundated than they are. Very concerned MD
No, you are mistaken Mr Doctor.
I am unvaccinated, and I am incapable of catching or transmitting Covid-19 in any of its forms. I caught the virus in February, recovered quickly and completely, and donated whole blood a month later. The American Red Cross subsequently confirmed that my blood had a high level of Covid antibodies and also showed as “reactive” in a separate test. In other words I have excellent natural immunity and a healthy level of antibodies.
I will not submit to being injected with any unapproved chemical cocktail, and the cloth/paper face masks people wear are no more than Covid theater, and virtue signalling.
How hard is this to understand?
You are a very bad MD and your statement is the exact opposite of my very good experienced pediatrician we spoke with a length yesterday. This virus is endemic. It’s not going anywhere.
You should request a refund from wherever you got your MD because they taught you political science, not medical science.
Kids are filling up emergency rooms because gullible parents listened to MDs like you and hid them away for a year plus resulting in their immune system being suppressed making them more susceptible to everything. They are getting RSV, every type of coronavirus that’s endemic, and all kinds of other stuff.
Did your “medical” school teach you we irradiated smallpox, possibly polio after our actions made it lethal in the first place, and ZERO endemic respiratory viruses? Or did you sleep through that class.
Hiding out longer is only going to result in more senseless harm, severe health consequences from every other cause, and destroy our business community.
Israel had a Delta outbreak AFTER 75% of their population got vaccinated. Still no pile of dead kids. No pile of dead kids in India with low vaccination.
Enough with the political science fear mongering. You hide as long as you want. Stop destroying the youngest in our community. Take your BLM sign and hide all you want. Leave my family alone. We get advice from real doctors who have a brain.
Momof2,
why do you feel the need to say anything about the Doctor having a BLM sign? He was only stating his point of view, which appears to be out of genuine concern about people’s health even if you might not agree. He never stated anything political yet YOU had to go and make that comment to try to turn it political. It seems that being able to have calm discussions from persons with different points of view is not possible in todays America.
But the self-righteous condescending doctor was not able to have a calm and respectful discussion with those with whom he disagreed. He called us “clueless”, and “deniers”, and continued by implying that we are stupid (“How hard is this to comprehend?”).
He initiated the mud slinging, not us.
What goes around comes around.
I did not get the impression he was self-righteous or condescending. He did address it to “the deniers and clueless”, two groups of people who most certainly exist (along with anti-vaxxers and others). While I can see how you might draw the “stupid” implication from him asking “how hard is this to understand?”, the fact is that he NEVER called anyone stupid (although I bet he probably wanted to). The words “morons” and “idiots” are just some that were used in earlier comments by others, so any mud-slinging that might be going on would NOT have been started by him. My comment to momof2 was not about her name calling, but specifically related to her comment “Take your BLM sign and hide all you want.” I think that comment was wrong as it has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with vaccines/viruses. It leads me to believe she is a racist (are you a racist, Momof2? because that sure made you sound like it) and could start getting other people to jump to the conclusion that anyone who believes as she does about masking, etc. must also be racist. I for one am tired of being lumped into the either/or umbrella. I am not explaining myself well, but it seems that today you are either a white, racist, god fearing and Trump loving Republican who believes the virus is a hoax and that democrats are giving away the country OR you are a devil worshipping Democrat who only cares about giving away the country and all of our “liberties” under the guise of BLM or a fake virus. Today it seems that everything is all about US vs. Them and whether we are on the same “team” politically. It is not that simple and I for one am tired of it.
No-one called the doctor a moron or a racist. He started with the insults.
Racism is not involved here at all. Please don’t drag it in.
And you are right about one thing – you did not explain yourself clearly at all.
Since I couldn’t reply in-line after your last msg I am putting it here.
I never said that there was “mud-slinging”, YOU are the one who brought that up.
I never said anyone called the doctor a moron or idiot, just that those terms had been used BEFORE the doctor ever posted. It was a way to show you that there had already been some mud slinging going on ( even though it was against the commissioners and not the Doctor) but I guess you didn’t understand that either.
And once again, the doctor never called anyone stupid. You assumed that he did—I guess you saw that the shoe fit and eagerly put it on.
Finally, I guess you think momof2 must have been telling the Doctor to go hide away with his “BLUE Lives Matter” sign huh? Yeah, That sounds about right.
If not in a Govt building, I will not wear one.
It is good we have a home in Brunswick County, also, where County Leadership treats adults … well, like adults. That’s where we’ll be spending our time and money.
If numbers higher than first time why are schools opening up?
If numbers are to high and vaccinated people have to wear masks, then why are bars restaurants not closed along with large events?
Why are the unvacinated rewarded for not complying? But will comply for cash so goes science excuse. How about issuing checks to ones that got vaccinated.
If this bad why are not borders closed, state lines closed, and air travel in and out of country not restricted?
Finally why has Cooper not mandate anything on state level? To close to election? Commissioners should take notice!
I-85/I-40, Exit # 140, University Drive in Burlington, first exit out of Guilford County. in Alamance County. Has all the shopping, restaurants, theatre, (even a big charging station for the ill informed) that anyone could want or need. Alamance County is still free and naked faced.
Spread your disease there all you like. Keep Greensboro healthy and safe. Much appreciated. We need a sign, welcome to Greensboro, no nutters allowed. But I guess the please wear a mask as a safely precaution for others is all the signage we need.
These current positive covid cases. Does anyone know if they are individual cases, or are people getting tested multiple times trying to get cleared to go back to work or school?
This has nothing to do with science or effectiveness. Local government feels the need to APPEAR to be doing something about the recent surge. Masks are simply low-hanging fruit that allows government authorities to fulfill that need.
I think Ol Skippy is more interested in flaunting himself as a good lil Democrat to his comrades at higher levels than he is in actually doing what’s best for Guilford County.
Yay, all the anti-maskers are saying they are leaving the area. Yay! Rejoice!
Oh wait, those folks aren’t exactly true to their word….
We are on the west side of town. Kville is just a close at some destinations in Greensboro. We know several good restaurants and other destinations in Forsyth Co.
We will be going to Burlington, and Asheboro for shopping. Even groceries. When tax revenue is down they will wonder what happened. I don’t need to go to this cities restaurants or shops or grocery stores. I can use all others in the area daily.
I just finished reading comments about Guilford County’s new mask mandate. I agree with everyone who says let’s get out of Guilford County. The level of stupidity expressed about the COVID situation here is just awful. CDC says delta variant can be transmitted/experienced by vaccinated persons. Wearing a mask in public is a small price to pay so that I do not accidentally give COVID to someone unvaccinated, and possibly kill them, or cause long term chronic problems, both of which the Delta variant does. This disease left unchecked could morph into something current vaccines won’t address at all.Children and young adults are dying. I do not understand the petty, ignorant comments posted here. Here’s hoping one of you is not quoted on your ICU deathbed that you wish you had been more serious.
According to the NCDHHS website since March 1, 2020 in the state of North Carolina a total of three children under the age of 17 have died from COVID including the Delta variant. In the most recent week the NCDHHS is reporting the week of July 25 there were nine deaths in North Carolina all between the ages of 65 and 74. https://covid19.ncdhhs.gov/dashboard/cases-demographics
99.5% of covid hospitalizations in NC are of those that have not been vaccinated. https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/public-health/breakthrough-covid-19-hospitalizations-and-deaths-by-state-per-nyt.html
It should be one’s own choice and own risk to take or not take the vaccine. It should be one’s choice to wear a mask or not.
It would be fine to make businesses post a sign that masks are required or not required and then let patrons make their choice to enter or not. Then we could all vote with our feet. Instead we have commissioners Alson, Foster, Cashion, Coleman, Cooke, Murphy & Upchurch trying to be our mother. Thanks to commissioners Conrad & Perdue for standing for freedom and common sense.
Voters need to remember these names and reminded of these names in the next election:
– Melvin “Skip” Alston
– J. Carlvena Foster
– Katie “Kay” S. Cashion
– Carolyn Q. Coleman
– Carly Cooke
– Mary Beth Murphy
– James Upchurch