putting the masks away

uproar drives puerto rico to recant.

well, here’s a nice little win and a rare case of puerto rico actually doing the right thing. perhaps affairs might be looking up after all…

on thursday afternoon, a mandate to bring back masks and mandatory hand sanitizing in all public spaces, indoor and out, emerged PR health secretary carlos lopez to whom authority to set covid regulations and intrude upon everyone’s lives and livelihoods has been delegated by the governor.

masks are coming back

this would have been both odious and pointless.

and people were NOT happy. the uproar was instant.

“turned the hornet’s nest upside down” is an apt choice of phrase.

from what i saw, it pretty much looked like this:

and even the reps stood up this time.

because almost no one wants this back.

and so this charming understatement:

The regulation also created some confusion after Mellado López stated last week that his agency is not going to impose more restrictions related to the pandemic and stressed the individual responsibility to take care of oneself.

led to this frantic walk-back.

It turns out that this regulation was a mistake and prevention measures, such as the use of masks, continue to be recommendations, the press spokeswoman for Health, Lisdián Acevedo Román, confirmed to Primera Hora.

Health, then, issued a circular letter this Friday to clarify the matter.

“Each one of the citizens residing in Puerto Rico has the responsibility to continue taking the precautionary measures that they understand to be correct in accordance with the recommendations of the Government and the CDCs and, in addition, to be judicious and determine not to participate in any activity or conduct that they understand, could put your health at risk,” the agency said in the letter.

and this clarification of policy:

"Currently, the Department of Health will not be executing this regulation, since it was approved at a time with different historical circumstances to comply with the legislation applicable to administrative regulations," he added.

i have very little faith that this had anything to do with a newfound grasp of or respect for science or concern for the rights and wishes of the inhabitants of this little island.

puerto rico is nothing so much as an aristocratic oligopoly. a handful of families own the place and run the politics. and i suspect they are well and done with this crap and that they had a quiet word with governor pedro who, in turn told his health sec to stand down.

this was a sort of trial balloon.

it was popped instantly.

good.

and my thanks to those who stood up and stopped this idiocy.

you did good work there.

well done.