Those in Guilford County who wanted to see a mask mandate back in place for every nook and cranny of the county can breathe a sigh of relief.
And if they’re in a public establishment, they’ll have to breathe that sigh through a face-covering because, on Thursday evening, Jan. 13, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners voted to approve another mask mandate to go into effect immediately that applies to everyone in the county when they are indoors at a public place such as a store, restaurant or entertainment venue.
Ten days ago, Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston used his power as chairman to implement a mask mandate for all unincorporated parts of Guilford County. However, the vote by the Board of Commissioners on Jan. 13 extended that mandate to include all cities and towns in the county.
The board voted 6 to 3 along straight party lines to reinstate the county-wide mandate that was removed by the Board of Commissioners last November.
The board held the special virtual meeting Thursday night in order to come together as the Guilford County Board of Public Health to make the decision. At that meeting, Guilford County Health Director Dr. Iulia Vann presented studies showing that masks help prevent the spread of the disease, and representatives of Cone Health made often impassioned pleas for the board to vote the mask mandate back into effect.
“We are stretched thin and, really, we are coming to you for help,” said Cone Health Chief Executive Officer Dr. Mary Jo Cagle, who was very intense at times during her presentation.
Republican Commissioners Justin Conrad and James Upchurch offered contrary evidence regarding the effectiveness of masking – but in the end the majority of commissioners voted to approve a new mandate.
The new Guilford County Board of Health rule became effective immediately upon adoption and will remain in effect “until the earlier of: (1) expiration or termination of the Proclamation of a Local Emergency, (2) February 27, 2022 at 5:00 p.m., or (3) modification or revocation by the Guilford County Board of Health.”
The guidelines adopted with the rule states: “There are several factors influencing the decision to implement a mask mandate. The Board of Health intends to continue to review all of these factors including, the advice of our local health professionals, number of hospitalizations, ICU and ventilator utilization, ER wait times, ambulance unloading times at area hospitals, ambulance call response times, vaccination rate, and positivity rate. Additionally, the Board of Health intends to have a formal review of these data points on February 3rd and again during each regularly scheduled Board of Commissioner meeting until a comprehensive review of the data suggests that we should lift the mandate.”
Such idiots. Democrats only do what the Democratic Party wants. Not what the citizens want. Any chance they will repeal this over the next 4 weeks if cases rise due to mask use?
The County Commissioners do NOT have the authority to enter citizens in this unnecessary mask mandate. The legislation is in session now in Raleigh. Everyone should contact Reps. Barrister and Faircloth and get them to pass a local bill prohibiting mask mandates in Guilford County. 14 other counties could be added and its would still be a local bill.
Excellent information. Thanks, Fred. Shall contact my reps.
NEWS FLASH, Frank. Democrats are citizens too. Matter of fact, they represent something called a MAJORITY in certain districts.
I know, it’s sad how far the average IQ has dropped in Guilford County. . After 22 months the useless masks won’t suddenly become useful, and only someone with an IQ under 90 would fail to notice they timed the implementation of this mandate to go into effect at the peak. Yet many will think the god of wokeness finally answered their prayers and made the masks work.
Many of these same people have experienced a cold in the last 3 weeks and think their faux vaccine protected them from the mild cold that swept through largely unvaccinated South Africa where it also caused only a mild a cold for 99.97% of those infected.
Look on the bright side, a few more faux vaccine rounds and they probably won’t be the majority any longer. ♀️
I agree that it’s much easier to make new friends with the mandates. You can see the smiles of the happy sane people, and the grumpy gullible folks kinda just blend in to the background. It’s cruel when the Taliban dehumanizes women by forcing them to cover their faces, but if people chose to be dehumanized sheep themselves, eh, I say go for it. They can be brainless cattle if that’s what they want to be I guess.
@stevethetuna, that’s fine that democrats are a majority in certain districts. Let the fools who voted for the suffer the consequences. Leave the rest of us alone!
You ARE being left alone, because no one really wants to touch you diseased, illiterate carcass. If you don’t like rules, you’re free to move to where there are none, where pubic health and safety are just a suggestion, where having a substitute penis/gun are more important than NOT having children shooting themselves and where you can belch all the toxic smoke and diesel exhaust your lungs can stand because, “Murca”. So far this century, the majority still agree we live on a planet with OTHER PEOPLE who have equal rights to NOT be infected by ignorant mouth breathers who’d rather let their imaginary friend in the clouds protect them than the products of 400 years of scientific inquiry and study. While you’re moving, why not invent a time machine and go back to the days of leeches, bloodletting and burning heretics at the stake
Be careful not to poke fun of the
“Imaginary friend “ we have upstairs you may need him someday. I don’t know if you are married (can’t imagine anyone wanting to live with you) or have children but if you do I’ll bet it’s a “wonderful life”
What an odious hateful creep you are.
What part of the North are you from?
Plenty of democrats I know actually choose to follow the science as well as recognizing our constitutional rights. Masks have never worked and if you have been paying attention you already know this. I’m sure our “ beloved” governor and soros backed Attorney general are all over this agenda and patting Skip on the back
To Rhino Times,
I do not know how to moderate the truth. If this is because of a certain named individual – it speaks volumes for this publication
They times it to go into effect at the predicted peak. . Next all the boosted Democrats in town currently infected will swear their woke god finally made masks magically work, but their mild cold scared them so bad they really want a 4th heart attack shot for themselves and a 3rd for their Covid-recovered 5 year old. These people have no idea they are a jokes.
Whatever Lola wants…..
The reason for the mask mandate is simple. They did it to show us that they can. Meanwhile, we can refuse to comply with their asinine rules.
What’s interesting is that after two years without getting Covid I finally got it earlier this week. A cold that I had in October was far worse. Just my personal experience. However, in the past two weeks, I have worn my mask more than I ever have and I got it. Everyone is coming down with it now. There’s no stopping it. This is the textbook definition of insanity. No one’s going to comply with this any more than they did back in the late summer.
You owe it to your libertarian, laissez-faire beliefs to NOT get government involved and treat yourself of Covid. Let the thoughts and prayers of your fellow ‘true believers’ protect you, and avoid the evil, wicked ‘government healthcare’.
So, maskless Skip changes his paper bag head covering and becomes HEALTH DEPARTMENT SKIP, and then bullies his way through the other Democrats in the HEALTH DEPARTMENT? Could this be a CYA move? The HEALTH DEPARTMENT refusing responsibility for repercussions from Covid-19?
Also, remember the same CEO Dr Cagle was the one firing healthcare workers for not getting vaxed. Now her staff is stretched to the limit?
Watching the original Laurel and Hardy wasn’t as funny as this.
Yes, it’s amusing to see the TV news coyly refer to “staffing shortages”. They’re trying to attribute the problem to Covid without alerting the viewer to the fact that corporations have been firing people who refuse to take The Clot Shot. Gee, ya think that might be why they’re short of staff?
If I fired 20% of my employees, I’d be short of staff too.
Looking forward to seeing all of your smiling faces around town. We’ are exempt, we will not submit
Idiots! All the way with a red hot poker!
I actually kinda like the mask mandates now. It makes it easier for me to meet new friends when I go places. 🙂
Sadly the mandate would wont work because all it does is rile up the nutters and many people don’t have the patience or resources to follow proper mask protocols.
Too little too late with too little support. Kinda the demicrats jam under Biden.
Biden does not have a mandate, the term that politicians love to use. He will not have the House or Senate after November. The continual accusations of racism every time a Democrat does not get their way is turning people away. Plus, like it or not, Biden will own the inflation rate, gas prices, and a poor Afghanistan withdrawal. He talks to the public like we are stupid children. The main issue is he is too old and removed, since he has not left DC since the early 1970s, to read the room. And I’m not a nutter or Trumpster so I’ll address that before that accusation flies.
I don’t disagree. He was the lessor if two evils as most elections are these days.
won’t work…sorry for typo as I know that triggers Austin Morris
Ha, ha, ha! I am living in Chris’s head 24/7 – rent free! His child-like Pidgin English displays his ignorance, right there for us all to see, and he is obviously very sensitive about it. Well, it makes him look stupid, doesn’t it? Because he is.
Ain’t life a bitch, Chrissy…?
And please, do try to get over me…. If you can.
You clearly love yourself enough as stupid loves stupid. You make a great catch for yourself.
Such wit. Like a 6 year old’s.
Well in that case I guess you can say you wasted your vote
Let’s be sure to bombard the snitch line with complaints about Austen Reality Group and register the snitch lines for spam calls/ mail
(336) 641-7638, by covidcomplaints@guilfordcountync.gov
Who will enforce this ? Our police force is already 100 officers short. We have high crime, murders, suicide, not to mention trash everywhere. This is a mandate, not a law. Do not comply and vote these idiots out of office ! Guilford county is sinking low.
You are correct Chris. I will put one on my face and wear it as improperly as possible. I watched the meeting online. The doctors could not answer the question of how many of the “300 hospital admissions” since Christmas were due to Covid. After the meeting I determined (my opinion) that the real issue is a staffing issue at Cone. Dr. Coley was forced to admit the staffing issues. No one wants to work at Cone, Guilford County Schools, or for police departments. I do not think this is related to Covid (maybe a tiny %). It may be b/c all 3 of those places do not pay enough and have terrible work cultures. Just a guess.
Staffing issues due to covid absentees? Or tired of treating unvaxxed nutters? Or tired if the protective wear they have to have for those im covid wards?
I would want to work in thise conditions either. Same with school teachers and school offoce staff.
So Skip puts this in place while sitting in a county building and not wearing a mask… Got it pal, what’s good for you is good for us. Good luck enforcing it. If you’re looking, I’ll be the one not in compliance wherever I may be at any given moment and every dime I spend will be outside of Guilford County if it hair lips the Pope.
Said this before. It was a Zoom meeting, and I believe he was calling in from home with county building picture as a background. Can’t believe I am defending him.
If you have only a .1% chance that you will crap your pants, wearing a diaper
makes little sense. As for the constant discussion of N95 masks, the CDC is asking you NOT to
wear them so that the medical facilities can have them. I was at a Doctors office today where
masks are required, everyone there including staff was touching/adjusting the mask. Doing this
negates the effectiveness if any existed.
The next election can’t come soon enough!
Regarding the new Guilford County Mask mandate:
The County Commissioners do NOT have the authority to enter citizens in this unnecessary mask mandate. The legislation is in session now in Raleigh. Everyone should contact Reps. Barrister and Faircloth and get them to pass a local bill prohibiting mask mandates in Guilford County. 14 other counties could be added and its would still be a local bill.
I want to avoid giving the individual who is responsible for this latest mandate any notice or recognition; By doing so conveys merit.
I intend , as do others, to avoid spending my resources in Guilford County until the mandate is lifted. We are a free people and that means choice and choice demands judgement, both sound and rigorous.
If you stand for personal liberty and self -determination ; if you favor self-reliance I urge you to take a stand on the side of liberty.
A free people exist, not by accident, but by allowing everyone to have a say in their governance.
As always; it’s up to all of us.
Once again Dictator Alston is trying to control all citizens of Guilford County. It has been proven time and time again that masks do not work to control the spread of Covid. This new Omicron has symptoms of only a mild cold. My family and I will be spending our hard earned dollars in another country once again. And by the way, doesn’t Dictator Alston have to legally give ten days notice before his unconstitutional mandate goes into effect?
Well said!
What I would like to know, is how the Guilford County Board of Commissioners can also meet as the “Board of Health”? From what I can tell, none of the commissioners has a medical degree, so how can they be responsible for making health-related decisions on behalf of the citizens of Guilford County? A Board of Health should be comprised of medical experts, not politicians.
mass formation psychosis
I agree with Wayne above. They did this to show us who is in control and that they can. We need to vote these bums out. I understand the medical professionals are stressed but…, this is what they signed up for! Just wait until the winter storm hits this weekend, the power folks will be crying about how tough their jobs are….this is what they signed up for!
Where can I deliver this truckload of cheese to go along with your mewling little WHINES? If a tiny piece of cloth is too much to ask you to do after 2.5 Greensboros worth of Americans are DEAD from a virus, then I guess it’s probably useless to ask you to do other civic minded activities like pay your taxes, vote, not drink and drive or wave your loaded guns around a school? The selfishness and cry-baby attitude of your spoiled paranoid psychopaths guarantees America will NEVER be rid of this virus. You folks are going to carry it, let it mutate and replicate again and again into Sigma, Pi, Theta and Omega variants, until we exhaust the Greek alphabet. Some of these bad boys will become MORE infectious than Omicron, some more deadly than Delta. EVERY SINGLE TIME a virus meets a new host it MUTATES to adapt to the antibodies an rNA strands it finds in that individual. The more individuals who are unvaccinated, the more MUTATIONS out in nature to cross over into other species and compete for dominance in the same way we no longer experience smallpox, polio, typhoid or diptheria. You get SEVEN vaccines to attend school. Why does the nation allow itself to become the laughing stock of the WORLD, by adding one more to the common protocol? When countries 4 times our size have less than half the infections and deaths, you know you’re doing something WRONG. If this is your attitude about a MASK, what is your attitude going to be when gas is rationed or the dollar becomes worthless or when our electric grid goes down? You people are a lynch mob waiting for the slightest excuse to exercise your professionally offended white privilege. The OBJECTIVE is not to keep you uninfected, it’s to keep your lazy entitled butt out of the hospital, so doctors and nurses can take care of cancer and heart attack victims and those mauled by your pit bulls. I swear to god this country that won a war on TWO international fronts against real armies can’t get out of its own way with all the weeping and wailing about any minor inconvenience. If you pi$$ and moan about THIS, imagine how you’ll act when you’re called on to repel an enemy horde or to ration gas or cut back on watering your lawn during a drought. SELFISH, conceited, arrogant, blissfully ignorant, paranoids who think they have the RIGHT to endanger everyone else’s life and become breeding grounds for the biggest public health challenge in 100 years because you flunked basic cell biology in high school. If you people are the majority, our nation is doomed.
Tuna you and chris please get your free tickets and go to RUSSIA
Good one, Will!
Viruses ” burn down” they don’t “burn up”… They mutate to be more infectious but less virulent. Check out Human Coronavirus OC-43 . Like it, the omicron variant with become just another of the four coronaviruses that cause the common cold.
With Biden in charge we are doomed and his backup is even worse. Your rationing comment will become reality with Democrats at the helm. You sound like a fish out of water. Masks are useless in preventing infection and do more harm than good. Google the Great Barrington Declaration and educate yourself.
White privilege ? Really? Now it’s down to childish name calling. In spite of the sheeple, we are presumably free citizens in a free country. You and I alike are entitled to respectful differences, but to assume a racial component in this discussion leaves me no way to retort other than refuse that discussion.
The minute anyone makes assumptions about another based on bias, no conversation is possible.
King Skippy and his fellow dumbocrarts were going to do this or bust hell wide open. So sad that Guilford County has become this cesspool of King Skippy’s and dumbass Vaughn. Why I built a house in SC where there’s freedom!
Born and raised here but the King and Nancy have driven it down the toilet. Sad
This is what happens when you elect DIMS. They want to control you. The science is masks don’t workunless you are properly wearing a K95. Remember this when the next election comes
The Cone Health System is a left wing joke for medical care. They should have asked Cone Health Chief Executive Officer Dr. Mary Jo Cagle if she is following medical science or political science. Medical science has already nullified the effectiveness of vaccines and masks, so who is that woman answering to? I know a 10 year phlebotomist who was with the Cone system who is waiting tables now because she refuses the jab, and she ain’t the only one. Cone whines about being short staffed, but won’t tell us the truth as to why. Better take a long hard look at your health care providers, and if they are owned by Cone, beware that you are being treated by someone ignoring their hippocratic oath to embolden their status with the DNC. Good luck
Dead right OldSkool! Last year Cone was lionizing their doctors & nurses as they worked through the pandemic (rightly), and this year they fire the same people for refusing the toxic shot. Then – shock! Horror! – they complain they’re short staffed. May be you shouldn’t have fired your ‘Healthcare Heroes’…
Most mask offer little protection:
(CNN)As the highly contagious Omicron coronavirus variant continues to spread, some experts say it’s past time to reconsider your face mask options — especially if you’re still wearing the cloth variety.
“Cloth masks are little more than facial decorations. There’s no place for them in light of Omicron,” said CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and visiting professor of health policy and management at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, on CNN Newsroom Tuesday.
“This is what scientists and public health officials have been saying for months, many months, in fact,” Wen added in a separate phone interview.
Omicron is now the dominant strain of coronavirus in the US, according to the CDC
Omicron is now the dominant strain of coronavirus in the US, according to the CDC
“We need to be wearing at least a three-ply surgical mask,” she said, which is also known as a disposable mask and can be found at most drugstores and some grocery and retail stores. “You can wear a cloth mask on top of that, but do not just wear a cloth mask alone.”
Autocracy inaction.
An endless cycle of willful ignorance governs the GC Board of Commissioners. How many times will they go through this knee-jerk act of desperation? As with every place else in the world, this panic move to mask always occurs when a peak in cases happens. So, naturally, when the peak subsides, the credit for this can be erroneously attributed to the masks.
It’s like driving with a rabbit’s foot in your pocket, and, on the one day you forget it, you crash your car, attributing this event to not having your rabbit’s foot that day, without any other rational causal analysis whatsoever. There is a very childish, Dark-Age mentality operating here. Guilford County needs better leadership, by far.