Freeport & Bath Enact Mask Mandates … Is Bangor Next?

Is it time to mask up again, Maine?

Earlier this month, the Portland City Council became the first Maine city to decide that an indoor mask mandate is necessary at indoor businesses. However, when it comes to restaurants, bars and clubs, and workout facilities, fully vaccinated people will be able to bypass this ordinance with proof of their vaccination records.

Brunswick quickly followed suit, and now another Maine town has enacted a mandate, and three more are strongly considering it.

The Freeport Town Council approved an indoor mask mandate on Tuesday for all public buildings, for those aged 5 and up. People can remove masks while eating or drinking. The mandate will remain in effect until at least February 16. Just this today, Bath has also imposed a mandate

Now, the towns of South Portland & Bar Harbor are mulling over this issue as well. Tuesday, the Bar Harbor Town Council adopted a resolution encouraging everyone to wear a mask.

With the Omicron variant reaching the peak of its powers here in the next several weeks, we are not out of the woods yet. A few weeks back, we conducted a poll question asking if Bangor should follow suit with these mandates, and the answer was a resounding no.

Should Bangor Follow Portland And Reinstate A Mask Mandate?

No!
61.33%

Yes!
37.31%

I Don't Care
1.19%

Other
0.17%

Our Facebook followers had some very strong opinions on this topic that continues to frustrate and divide people.

Jessica Lynn
Though many have died because of Covid, it still wasn’t the “end all”, neither was delta and currently omicron isn’t either. In fact, omicron, the best one, one could get, could possibly be the end of covid. People need to put their faith in a higher power. That higher power isn’t Dr. Shah, nor is it Dr. Fauci, nor our governments. Can I get an Amen?

Alicia Briggs
No way. Everyone that wants to wear a mask can do so. This forcing people to do things that clearly hasn’t worked is insane!

Heather Ann
Last year when we all were Wearing masks the numbers were low and there was very little sickness: cold, flu, & Covid. Now the numbers are crazy with no masks and vaccines. I’m not a fan of the masks but if it’s gonna decrease the cases I’m for it. I wear a mask at work anyway.

Chasity Strout
I don’t mind wearing a mask if I have to but I don’t like the idea of mandating a vaccine that obviously doesn’t work. Numbers are at an all-time high with 3 available vaccines.

Kelly Palmer Harvey
They need to focus on treatment. They've forced everything to try to prevent and end it, failing on every level. They need to learn the best treatments and not wait until people are on their deathbeds before starting it.

Alec Reid Shannon
Reading these comments… just wow. This is why I don’t have faith in humanity anymore. This whole “ME ME ME, screw everyone else” mentality is why it got so bad to begin with. But hey, why listen to Doctors and other medical professionals.

Alan McLaughlin
Since everyone just wears the cloth masks (for compliance) and those are useless.. then no need to wear one when they are not doing anything.

Mitchell Carey
Yes these comments are honestly just sad. The people saying no we’re the ones talking about how we need life to get back to normal. However, even when presented with the options of doing so they’d rather politicize it or say no cause it’s inconvenient to them. GUESS WHAT PEOPLE THERE WERE MASK MANDATES IN THE PAST, MANDATORY VACCINES, AND VACCINE CARDS. Heck people are saying the founding father would be against this cause it’s against freedom. Guess what George Washington mandated troops be inoculated against smallpox. The reason why we are going on year three of this pandemic is because people aren’t doing these things in the first place. Therefore the virus is mutating and sticking around longer because of it.

Michaela Ames
Nope. It’s never going to go away. We’re always going to have a new variant. Just like we do with the flu, almost yearly.
Each variant that comes out, is less than the one before. ♀️

Deanna Rice
We never should have stopped. The pandemic didn't end. Anyone who thinks they're 100% safe is a moron.

Brian Murphy
It's a little late now. The virus is an airborne one so if we weren't going to mitigate that from the start then we were never going to get ahead of it regardless of being vaxxed or not. The disease makes the rules not politicians.

Will Bath and South Portland join this cause? Will Bangor consider it? Time will tell. Till then, stay tuned. This isn’t over yet.