Is Missoula Working Its Way Back to a Mask Mandate?

Remember your first time? You thought about it for so long. You played out how it would go in your mind. Sure, there was a bit of awkwardness that came with it - but you were just so happy to be in the moment and couldn't wait to do it again. I'm right there with you - it was such a great feeling to go into a store for the first time after the mask mandate was dropped. Ugh.....please don't tell me there's a chance we'll have to go back to masks!

I think right now we're down to pretty much only needing to wear masks at the airport and on public transportation for the most part around Missoula. But could that be changing in the near future? If you've kept your eye on the news lately.....you've probably seen that COVID numbers are starting to increase again. There's been a lot of talk about the delta variant and and how most new cases - not all - are among those that are unvaccinated. Los Angeles has already brought back their mask mandates. I don't know if it'll happen, but I heard something the other day where Las Vegas is under watch - and they were talking about possible scenarios that could see Sin City make the decision to return to masks. The CDC is now recommending that even vaccinated people wear masks when indoors in certain parts of the country

I was bouncing around Twitter today and one of the first things I saw was a recap of some of the numbers that are on the rise for Missoula.

Nope, that doesn't look good. I'm no medical expert, but a headline of "Hospitalizations Hit Levels Not Seen Since Spring in Missoula County" doesn't seem like the most promising thing to read when we're all wanting to keep our faces from being covered again. I don't mean to freak anybody out - there's only 12 hospitalizations - and hopefully numbers won't continue to rise.

It seems Montana is in a pretty good position when compared to other parts of the country. Fingers crossed we won't have to revert back to mask wearing - but there's a few places that are now wearing masks that had that same hope.

What's your feelings? Do you think we should wear masks again as numbers start to increase and the delta variant has become more of an issue?