I do not normally like to reproduce photos from The Philadelphia Inquirer, due to copyright issues, but this one definitely falls within “fair use” criteria. The caption, reproduced along with the photo via screen capture, states:

Masked Sixers fans watched pregame warm-ups before the Sixers’ Monday playoff game against the Toronto Raptors, during Philadelphia’s short-lived revival of an indoor mask mandate.

Except, of course, that’s not what the photo shows at all.

The photo captures the faces of five people at the game, during pre-game warmups. Three are clearly wearing face masks, a fourth has one, but it’s tucked under his chin, while a fifth spectator doesn’t have a mask visible anywhere on his person, though it’s possible he has one available somewhere. The boy with the red mask is wearing his slightly below his nose, so it’s useless there as well.

This photo was as much propaganda as much as anything else. It was published along with this story:

Why some health experts worry that Philly’s switch on masks may backfire

Philadelphia’s mask conundrum, which saw the city reverse a new mandate days after imposing it, may undermine public confidence, experts warn.

by Tom Avril and Sarah Gantz | Saturday, April 23, 2022

As Philadelphia’s health commissioner during the early years of the AIDS epidemic, Stuart H. Shapiro knows what it’s like to run a big-city health department during a crisis. The evidence keeps changing, yet the guidance has to be updated in a way that inspires public cooperation and trust.

That’s why it was smart for Philadelphia to establish clear COVID-19 benchmarks in February, spelling out what levels of cases and hospitalizations would trigger requirements such as masks and proof of vaccination, he said. But now that those metrics have been cast aside as of Thursday, Shapiro worries that the abrupt reversal may backfire.

Also read: Philadelphia is the only top 10 U.S. city where lawmakers are still meeting virtually

“It’s totally confusing,” he said. “It takes away confidence in science-based criteria.”

Another former health agency chief, previously skeptical of Philadelphia’s decision to become the only big city to resume an indoor masking requirement, praised its decision to replace its mask mandate with a strong recommendation to mask up.

“They did the right thing at the same time, which is to highly recommend the use of masks,” former Baltimore health commissioner Leana Wen tweeted Friday. “Remember if you wear a mask to please wear a well-fitting N95 or equivalent.”

There’s more at the original.

If you look at the photo closely — and you can click on it to enlarge the image — you’ll see that of the three people actually wearing the masks that none of them are wearing N95 or equivalent masks; they’ve got cloth masks, while the gentleman wearing a mask below his chin appears to have a surgical mask.

The article is basically full of excuses as to why Philadelphia was the only major city to reimpose a mask mandate, and then cancel it four days in. But while it gives us an excuse, the real reasons are two-fold, and obvious:

1. The indoor mask mandate was being significantly ignored, as witnessed by this video taken the same day as the photo above; and
2. The Democrats are facing a potentially disastrous election for them, and the public, and the voters, are just plain tired of the restrictions.

On Friday, Philadelphia health commissioner Cheryl Bettigole rejected any suggestion that the quick reversal on the mask mandate could hurt the health department’s credibility.

“I very much take seriously my obligations to say things that are true to Philadelphia and to keep my promises,” Bettigole said. “I had said when I announced this that if we didn’t see hospitalizations rising that we needed to rethink this and that we shouldn’t have a mandate in that case.”

COVID hospitalizations in the city rose earlier in the week, following an increase in cases, but both numbers have since declined slightly. Everyone hopes that widespread vaccination, along with the immune response induced by prior infection, will make severe COVID a thing of the past.

Note that the last quoted sentence is not indicated as a quote from Dr Bettigole, but appears to be a political statement by the article writers.

In the past, the decisions and announcements on COVID restrictions came on Mondays. The reinstated mask mandate was announced on Monday, April 11^th, the health department supposedly taking the weekend to consider data which were obvious, something I predicted on April 5^th, to take effect the following Monday, April 18^th. Yet the mandate was lifted on the evening of Thursday, April 21^st. Whatever health data existed from the first four days of the mandate was hardly sufficient to justify changing the decision, but the information on the political aspects was right in front of their noses. That Philadelphia was the only major city to reimpose the mandate was information that they did have, as it was blared all over the city’s media outlets.