So much for better governance.

Incoming New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced on Thursday that he intends to keep departing Mayor Bill de Blasio’s sweeping employer vaccine mandate in place, along with all mask mandates and school restrictions.

One of the only changes Adams proposed is switching to “higher-quality masks” in schools, which means students might be forced to wear heavy-duty N95 masks instead of cloth masks. Los Angeles has already proposed this policy change, despite the fact that the Food and Drug Administration says N95 respirators “are not designed for children” and that “a proper fit cannot be achieved on children.”

In other words, New York City and other deep-blue areas where COVID-19 paranoia is running amok can expect to live with restrictions like these for a long time yet. It doesn’t matter that these policies don’t work. They’ve become a sort of virtue signal for Democratic officials who want people to believe they’re “doing something” about the pandemic. Hence why Adams is embracing the same failed approach as de Blasio despite promising to be different: If he didn’t, people might think he’s not taking the pandemic seriously.

The only solution, then, for those looking for a near-term return to normalcy and common sense, is to flee areas in which COVID-19 alarmism is accepted to areas where it is not. New York City is not going to be “normal” again for a long time. Adams has made sure of that.