Does this mean Greenwich Free Press's "transportation columnist" can take off his spit mask?

and there was a great, albeit muffled, wailing, and gnashing of teeth

The COVID masks that were never worn on Metro-North are no longer required, thanks to the beneficence of her Royal Highness, NY Governor Kathy Hochul.

Follow the election day calendar the science

“Since the beginning of the pandemic the MTA has been guided by the health experts,” MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said in the release. “With revised guidance from the New York State Department of Health, which was the basis for the mask requirement on public transit, now is the right time for New Yorkers to make personal choices about what works best for them.”

I’m not familiar with the governance structure of Metro-North, so I don’t know why NY has authority over Connecticut riders in Connecticut, but however that works, this dispensation is sure to come as welcome news to GP’s Jim Cameron, who for the past two years has been fulminating and tossing his cardboard coffee cup to the floor in disgust over Metro-North conductors’ refusal to summarily execute passengers who won’t wear the requisite bit of face theater.

Here, for instance, and here, and even here.

I hate to keep harping on this issue, but we’re talking about a serious public health threat.  Unmasked passengers, even if they’re vaccinated, can be asymptomatic and spread the COVID virus to hundreds of fellow riders in a matter of minutes, let alone the hour-plus ride to NYC in a sealed tube.

Appeals to Metro-North, the MTA, to Governor Lamont and even our federal officials have resulted in no change.  The MTA seems determined to not enforce the mask rules, endangering existing riders and discouraging others from returning.

I’m sure Mr. Cameron will keep wearing his own mask whilst riding the rails into the City to receive his 15th Covid/Monkeypox/Flu combo booster injection, but at least he can now return his attention to petitioning the authorities for the reimposition of tolls on our highways and other, similar issues that used to take up his time before he was distracted by the lawless behavior of his fellow passengers and the nonfeasance of the MTA police force.

We look forward to that.

UPDATE: While commuters may finally be free of this idiocy, the New York Times reports that the CDC is still forcing masks onto the faces of Had-Start 2-year-olds “because, well, because!”