Face diapers be gone

 So is anyone in Minnesota hosting a burn party for face masks?

Gov. Tim Walz will end the state's mask mandate on Friday after federal health officials recommended that fully vaccinated people don't need to wear masks in most situations.

Businesses will be free to make their own decisions about whether to ask customers or employees to mask up, but Walz said that the time has come to discontinue the mask mandate that has stood since July 25.

"We know that masks were a critical tool in the early stage and still remain today in slowing or stopping the transmission of the coronavirus," Walz said.

Minnesota health officials will still encourage mask wearing among those who are not fully vaccinated, but that guidance will not have the legal force of a mandate.

Once the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued its guidance on vaccinated individuals not having to wear masks, Walz was in an untenable position. When he announced last week significant loosening of restrictions, the Governor indicated that once 70% of Minnesotans ages 16 and up received their first COVID shot (or July 1; whichever came first), he would lift the mask mandate. As of earlier this week, the vaccination rate in Minnesota indicated we wouldn't reach that 70% threshold until the third week of June. So on Thursday when the CDC issued its guidance for fully vaccinated individuals, the Walz administration basically conceded that their initial plan of ditching the state's mandate no later than July 1 would likely be ignored. As such, he and MN Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm urged non-vaccinated Minnesotans to continue to wear masks but stopped short of making it a requirement. 

"Setting up a dual-tier system ... would prove more of a challenge and less efficient," Walz said.

Many elected officials and health bureaucrats alike have conveyed disappointment over what they believe are subpar vaccination rates. However, the CDC seems unwilling to acknowledge their own role in that scenario. Once vaccines became available, the organization recommended that people continue wearing masks and practice social distancing even after becoming fully vaccinated. They never conveyed a coherent rationale as to why other than pointing to an infinitesimal chance of a vaccinated person still contracting the virus. Add to that Federal health officials pausing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after literally one in a million suffered significant side effects, we suddenly saw vaccination rates plummet. I'm guessing that part of the motivation behind the CDC's latest recommendations is to incentivize more people to get vaccinated. If so, then they have come full circle in their complete bungling of this pandemic. 

While the state of MN is no longer mandating mask usage for vaccinated individuals, private businesses may exercise their discretion by continuing to require the practice. As such, I've seen more than a handful of the #MaskUpMN virtue signalers on social media encouraging others to extend grace to those store owners who desire their customers to wear masks. I wonder how many of these same scolds didn't exactly exercise that same compassion when in the presence of an unmasked (but vaccinated) person. I'm gonna guess that percentage is close to three digits. 

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