California ending COVID mask mandate and easing other rules – too soon, too slow?

California ending COVID mask mandate and easing other rules – too soon, too slow?

Andrew Noymer, an [associate professor of public health] at UC Irvine, said health officials are in a difficult bind, trying to impose rules where they can help protect public health while avoiding keeping them beyond the point where people will follow them. “We don’t want the rules to be more strict than what people are doing in real life, because then the rules become a joke, and if you ever need to impose them again, you can’t,” Noymer said. “You’re going to still find me wearing masks at a lot of grocery stores. … The state has some really tough choices right now.”