How Does CPHD Determine When to Impose/Lift the Indoor Mask Mandate?

Dear CV Forum Editors,

After the California Public Health Department issued the edict to reimpose an indoor masking mandate throughout the State on August 1st, I had a question: why?

More precisely: What specific public metrics - vaccine rates, hospitalizations, case numbers - is the CPHD using to determine when to impose/lift the in-door mask mandate? And, separately, will the relevant public agencies mandate COVID vaccines for kids under 12 before lifting the in-school mask mandate?

I still don't know. Neither, it seems, does anyone else. Weeks ago, I emailed the office of CVUSD Superintendent Parvin Ahmadi these same two questions. She referred me to the Alameda County Public Health Department. ACPHD promptly replied, citing general information on their website. After I failed several times to extract answers to my specific questions, they passed me on to the CDPH. I emailed them; they have not replied. That was on September 13th.
In this newspaper, on September 15th, Alameda County Chief Health Officer Dr. Nicholas Moss encouraged folks to “continue to take measures,” including universal masking, until “very few people get severely ill.” Sounds nice, but vague. He also hinted at a future writ, saying “until vaccines are available for children under 12 ... multi-layered prevention” is vital. He, again, was not explicit. Besides, a child vaccine mandate is the purview of the State and local school district.

I understand anxiety and caution in the wake of the Delta wave. And yet, the public deserves transparency about what precisely is informing these declarations, the end point of which is obscure, rather than banking on a generalized public fear. These agencies have not been forthcoming. I am not willing to defer indefinitely to an unresponsive health bureaucracy that cannot even explain, let alone justify, its dictums. I would still like answers. Other county residents should, too.

–Adam Balbo, Castro Valley