A city in California voted Wednesday to ban universal COVID-19 mask and vaccine mandates, according to CBS News.
Huntington Beach City Council Mayor Pro Tempore Gracey Van Der Mark introduced the motion Tuesday night at the meeting to ban the mandates, according to the motion. Huntington Beach, California’s city council voted 4-3 to ban universal mask mandates and vaccine mandates in the city, though the mandate ban excludes those who have tested positive for COVID-19, according to CBS News. (RELATED: Hospital Systems Around The US Are Bringing Back Mask Mandates)
COVID-19 mandates “unnecessarily limited the freedoms of the citizens of Huntington Beach — even those who were not around anyone who tested positive for COVID-19 or at risk of any exposure,” Mark wrote in the motion.
A pharmacy advertises Covid-19 vaccines in a window along Roosevelt Avenue. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
“With the increase in reports that there now may be a COVID resurgence and spread by a new COVID-19 variant, and additional discussion of possible new broad (universal) mask-wearing mandates and pushes for vaccination boosters, the City Council of Huntington Beach should take a stand against government imposing on individual liberties and broadly imposing response measures on individuals that have been proven to have little or no effectiveness,” the motion reads.
Mask mandates are being reimplemented in some schools and other schools around the country are shutting down as COVID-19 cases rise. Runge Independent School District in Texas shut down after 10 staff members got COVID-19 in August. The University of Michigan is requesting students who catch COVID-19 to get a hotel room and quarantine for five days.
“The City Council is taking this policy stand against broad government mask and vaccine mandates to guard against another invasion of individual liberties while such measures have been deemed medically ineffective,” a spokesperson for the City of Huntington Beach told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Mark did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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