Due to the 70% uptick in COVID cases last month, the CDC has issued new public health guidance concerning masks. Now, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and Fauci are “urging” people, whether vaccinated or unvaccinated to wear masks. This comes in sharp contrast to the recent policies of reopening and trying to get back to normal. Two states in particular Biden has an eye on forcing to conform to the new policies are Texas and Florida. In both states, the governors have signed laws prohibiting mask mandates. These laws essentially mean that fully vaccinated people cannot be forced to wear a mask.
Biden is currently trying to get rid of the mask mandate ban that DeSantis (FL) and Abbott (TX) have signed. He is currently unsure of whether he has the power to do so. He is unsure about a lot of things. Considering that federal law supersedes state law, it may be possible, unfortunately.
Personally, I see the ban on mask mandates as a sign of progress. The vaccine has been around. In Texas about 45% of the population is fully vaccinated and 49.7% are fully vaccinated in Florida, though, generally, everyone who wanted to get the vaccine has had ample opportunity to do so by now. It seems ridiculous to require people who have been vaccinated to wear masks. In part, it takes the incentive to get the vaccine away. It also acts as a symbol. When will COVID end? When will all the restrictions go away? Are there new restrictions coming?
There is also a psychological toll that the mask evokes. People, as I have noticed since the ban on mask mandates, are less afraid of others. More and more go out and people are friendlier to each other. It is not the mask itself that can cause so much discomfort as the constant feeling of fear that it brings. Saying you need to wear a mask even if vaccinated is like saying, “Sorry, your vaccine didn’t work.”
“Red Herring”
Forbes calls it a “red herring – a distraction from the far more relevant question of how to end the pandemic.”
The uptick in cases is largely due to the delta variant, which the current vaccine appears to protect against. Yale Medicine claims that “vaccination is the best protection against delta.” The Kaiser Family Foundation also claims that “more than 9 in 10 COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths have occurred among people who are unvaccinated or not yet fully vaccinated.”
The real way to win the game of COVID is for a herd immunity to be established or to let the last transmissible remnants of the virus die. The latter may be very difficult to achieve, if not somewhat impossible. There is hope, though. Ebola came and went in this country. No one hears about it anymore.
Obama’s 60th Birthday Bash
Either way, the people at the top do not really believe in the mask mandate. At Obama’s 60th birthday party, no masks were required. There were about 300-350 people, many of whom were celebrities. It took place at Martha’s Vineyard, which is a COVID hotspot. In hotspots, the CDC requires masks (even if vaccinated), people not to have large gatherings, and everyone to socially distance. Fauci never said anything against Obama’s party.
It is quite a display of hypocrisy. Fauci, on the other hand, warned about the “superspreader event” that might take place due to a motorcycle rally in Sturgis, SD. He heavily implied that this was a MAGA crowd, though it was just a motorcycle rally, not inherently partisan.
“A Sophisticated, Vaccinated Crowd”
Then on Monday, a New York Times reporter went on CNN and quoted a Vineyard resident as saying the Obamas were fine because they invited “a sophisticated, vaccinated crowd.”
So basically, an outdoor motorcycle event is worse than an indoor party where no one was wearing a mask. It is fine if one group of people does something but not another. Republicans are portrayed by Democratic elites as ignorant, uneducated people who are all against being vaccinated and wearing masks, while Democrats are all cautious, sophisticated people who vaccinate, wear masks, and socially distance. No one really even knows who was or was not vaccinated in Obama’s party. The elites get to stay at the top and do whatever they want.
But overall, why should Obama and his guests get to party without masks on when now even vaccinated people are forced to wear masks? Why is Obama a hero?
Written by: Miranda Smith
