California’s liberal leadership just can’t let go of COVID control. In yet another heavy-handed move, Sonoma County — nestled in the heart of California’s wine country — has announced a new mask mandate and renewed vaccine recommendations, ignoring both public fatigue and federal guidance that’s finally moving toward common sense.
On Monday, Dr. Karen Smith, the county’s Interim Health Officer, ordered that anyone entering certain healthcare facilities must wear a mask starting November 1. The order will remain in effect until **March 31, 2026** — yes, more than a year and a half from now. Even more concerning, Smith granted herself the power to expand the mandate to other facilities “as needed.”
The sweeping order applies to nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, dialysis clinics, and other healthcare settings. According to Smith, the new restrictions are meant to “protect the most vulnerable populations,” like seniors and cancer patients, and prevent “staffing problems” caused by illness among medical personnel.
That reasoning, however, has done little to calm frustration among residents tired of endless mandates. After all, this is the same county that kept some of the nation’s longest-running pandemic restrictions in place during 2020 and 2021 — devastating small businesses and pushing local families to the brink.
Smith’s new rule even dictates what kind of masks are acceptable, banning cloth coverings, scarves, or bandanas and requiring surgical masks or high-grade respirators like KN95s and N95s. Anyone with a medical or mental health condition that prevents mask use is exempt, as are the hearing impaired and a few other limited categories.
But perhaps the most alarming detail is that this mandate isn’t just temporary — it’s designed to come back every year. The order explicitly states that the mask requirement will be *annual* unless rescinded. In other words, Sonoma County residents could be facing mask season as a permanent fixture of life.
Alongside the mask order, Dr. Smith doubled down on vaccine promotion, urging everyone aged six months and older to get both COVID and flu shots. She even “strongly recommended” masks for everyone — vaccinated or not — whenever “COVID-influenza risk is high.”
Her advice, however, directly contradicts new guidance from Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The Biden administration may have been all-in on mandates, but under Kennedy’s leadership, federal health officials are pulling back. This week, the CDC approved a recommendation to *remove* the automatic advice that adults 65 and older get a COVID vaccine. Instead, Americans are being told to talk to their doctors and make an informed choice — a refreshing shift toward individual freedom and medical autonomy.
Meanwhile, Kennedy’s HHS is narrowing vaccine approvals and focusing on what it calls “science, safety, and common sense.”
But in progressive enclaves like Sonoma County, officials seem addicted to control. As the rest of the country moves on, they’re clinging to outdated policies that treat citizens like subjects and science like a political weapon.
Once again, California proves that for the Left, the pandemic was never just about public health — it was about power.
