Lionsgate Studios Re-Imposes Mask Mandates

Two weeks to "slow the summer spike," baby.

Mask mandates are making a return to Lionsgate's Santa Monica, California, office, according to a memo sent to employees on Monday.

In the email provided to Fox News Digital, Sommer McElroy, Response Manager for Lionsgate/Starz, stated that "effective immediately" masks will be required on certain floors in their Santa Monica offices "until further notice." According to Deadline Hollywood, this encompasses "nearly half of the company's employees at its flagship office at 2700 Colorado Ave. in Santa Monica."

"Employees must wear a medical grade face covering (surgical mask, KN95 or N95) when indoors except when alone in an office with the door closed, actively eating, actively drinking at their desk or workstation, or if they are the only individual present in a large open workspace," McElroy said.

In addition, Lionsgate will maintain a "building entry policy" where each employee is "required to perform a daily self-screening prior to coming to the office each day" and must notify McElroy if there are "new or worsening symptoms" or if they "travelled internationally in the last 10 days." Lionsgate will also conduct contact tracing and notify "all individuals who have been in close contact with employees who have tested positive for COVID-19."

The studio is expected to provide at-home-test-kits to all staff in the Lionsgate Santa Monica office at request. Surgical mask and KN95s will be available at the front desk while N95s will be available upon request.

McElroy explained in the memo that the new mandates follow several employees testing positive for COVID-19 as cases have begun to rise.

Niccole Saphier criticized the move, pointing out that covid has "spiked" every winter and at the end of each summer, so having a couple of cases now is perfectly usual.

She also pointed out the small fact that... masks simply do not work, and even among the masks that don't work, the stupid drug store surgical masks that everyone wears don't work most of all.

To have any kind of real protection (that also doesn't really work), you need to wear a KN95 or N95 mask. And those don't work. Because to even make them not work in an acceptable manner, you have to put them on so tight that the straps leave creases in your face, and no one does that.

Saphier added, "Those don't actually work as we've seen by many, many studies. But to actually say, you know, to wear masks again in the house and just being in public spaces, we have to move on."

...

Recently, more mainstream media outlets have begun suggesting a return to masking. MSNBC ran a segment on kids masking to prevent the spread of the virus at the beginning of the new school year, PBS had one about wearing masks in crowded areas to prevent the spread, and CBS Mornings warned about the "Summer COVID Spike" that may happen due to people letting "their guard down" and forgetting to mask.

posted by Ace at 12:05 PM

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