LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, Celebrities Shown Attending Super Bowl Sans Required Masks

During Super Bowl LVI held at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on Sunday, prominent California celebrities and lawmakers were seen without masks, breaking both state and local laws, while also further calling into the question the need for local mandatory mask laws still in place.

Los Angeles loves celebrities but hates children. #SuperBowl pic.twitter.com/Bg6YGCXxb3

— Kevin Dalton (@NextLAMayor) February 13, 2022

Two weeks ago at the NFC Championship game between the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers, also held at SoFi Stadium, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, San Francisco Mayor London Breed, and Governor Gavin Newsom were all seen in photos at the game with masks. Dubbed “MaskGate,” the controversy quickly grew, forcing those involved to make statements. Newsom said that the photo ops were only done very quickly while Garcetti said that he held his breath for the photo, making the mask removal okay.

While that controversy slowly faded into the next, state masking laws saw a huge shift. On February 8th, Governor Newsom announced that the state COVID-19 masking mandate would end on February 15th. While this meant that most areas of the state no longer had masking policies in all but a few places such as nursing homes and mega events, places like Los Angeles County and some Bay Area Counties opted to keep mandatory masking at the local level.

Meanwhile, back at the build up to the Super Bowl, many stadium employees raised severe doubts about mask enforcement. While masking policies would be in place for the game, with masks only being allowed off for active eating and drinking, SoFi workers noted that compliance would be impossible due to more than 70,000 in attendance. Many of the workers the Globe talked to late last week even noted that they would be lucky if half the people wore theirs for the game.

Not a single mask in the entire photograph. https://t.co/ditV8pw1gF

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) February 14, 2022

On Sunday, all of these issues combined for a massive amount of non-compliance. Clips to fans at the game showed a majority of them unmasked. Celebrities in the stands from LeBron James to Jay-Z to Jennifer Lopez were all shown during the broadcast not wearing masks at multiple times during the game.

Here’s the video of every celebrity without a mask during the Super Bowl. But every kid in California will have to be wearing them tomorrow in school. They must all be holding their breaths the entire game. pic.twitter.com/Dc9yVd7RPf

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) February 14, 2022

Many teachers and other workers directly affected by the mask mandate quickly pointed out the hypocrisy of fans being allowed to watch without masks on while young students were still being closely monitored for mask compliance.

My students all have to wear masks all day tomorrow, inside and outside of their classrooms because we are in LA County. Same place as the Super Bowl. But not a mask in sight here. pic.twitter.com/oVUzDznwOA

— Chris Fore (@chriscfore) February 13, 2022

Garcetti maskless again

While the cameras tended to shy away from lawmakers attending the game, fans using Twitter and other social media called many out. This included Mayor Eric Garcetti again, who was videoed and photographed several times in large groups without a mask on.

LA Mayor @ericgarcetti once again ignoring the mask mandate. That’s the second game in a row (last time he said he was holding his breath), but they are still forcing kids to wear masks every day. pic.twitter.com/PaGRhbye2x

— AG (@AGHamilton29) February 14, 2022

While the Mayor has yet to respond to as why he wasn’t wearing a mask this time, criticism against against him and other for not complying, as well as against mandates still being in effect, grew on Monday morning following the videos and images from the Super Bowl.

“Looking past over whether people should wear these still at all, these well known people not wearing masks sends the wrong message,” said Cliff Eyerson, a Southern California nurse who gave school COVID-19 health demonstrations to several schools in the last few years, to the Globe on Monday. “Specifically to children. When I give the presentations, when it comes to masks, showing their favorite athletes wearing them on the sidelines or their favorite TikTok celebrities wear them during videos or singers and actors wearing them during recording sessions or between takes always strikes a nerve. It shows them that no one is above this and that everyone is truly in this. Lead by example. Heck, students would sometimes make fun of Trump or Biden because they saw them without a mask, then I showed them images of them wearing theirs and that quieted them all quickly.”

“Don’t be an ass” pic.twitter.com/WMfLEMsCkN

— Kevin 2.0????????????????‍☠️A13 (@A13KCF) February 14, 2022

“And then look what happened on Sunday. So many didn’t even give an effort like holding a mask or making a show of taking it off or whatnot. They just didn’t wear it. And that included the Mayor. Again. You know, if this policy stays in place longer in LA, or if there is suddenly a new surge in a new strain, people will be less inclined to wear masks because of things like this. Either have masking be in place or don’t. I think it should still be in place LA speaking as a medical professional. But don’t just go halfway or not care about compliance. It’s incredibly disappointing.”

Others who have been advocating for mask mandate removal have been using the Super Bowl images as more proof that the mandates are neither being followed nor enforced.

“You could have fooled me that we were still in a pandemic with those pictures,” added an anonymous LA city government worker to the Globe. “It’s just more proof that the mandate doesn’t work.”

LA County has yet to give an en date for mandatory indoor masks as of Monday.