Vaccine and Mask Mandate Madness: Not Needed or Too Little Too Late?

Many states are avoiding mask mandates despite the new CDC guidance. Some local leaders are defying their own orders.

Summary

Michigan and Virginia have declined to reinstitute a mandate, while Texas has effectively banned local mandates as has Florida, which is allowing parents to choose whether mask up their children for school.

• Mask mandates for schools are a nationwide problem, as parents in many states are organizing in protest.
• Biden administration officials, after sounding the alarm on COVID-19’s delta variant, are now very concerned about the alarmist coverage over their own alarmism. 
• In states with lower than desired vaccination rates, health “experts” are frustrated the Biden administration’s handling of the pandemic, saying they’re “skeptical” people will wear masks “without clear mandates.” 

   

• The Biden administration is also getting pushback from public sector unions who are uncomfortable with Biden’s push to get all federal workers vaccinated. 
• In the “Rules for Thee, Not for Me” department, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser is under fire for hosting a mask-less birthday party just hours before her new indoor mask mandate went into effect.

• The Atlantic interviewed the director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at George Washington University, attempting (and failing) to explain and calm nerves over when and when not to mask if you’re vaccinated, before becoming alarmist and arguing for full FDA approval of coronavirus vaccines before saying the fall and winter of 2021 will be “bleak” in terms of infections and deaths. 
• The New York Times painted a grim picture of Provincetown, Mass., where an outbreak among vaccinated people prompted the CDC to issue a new guidance, very selectively quoting the town manager for maximum outrage, while the town manager took to Twitter to effectively refute the story. 
• The Washington Post published a report on the fury some vaccinated Americans feel towards the unvaccinated fellow countrymen, gathering anecdotes from around the country of people who don’t understand how science and risk works.

• Fox News reported on parents’ anger about the CDC’s new mask guidance, which says everyone regardless of age and vaccination status should wear masks in schools this fall. 
• The Daily Wire reported on Chicago’s delay of new mandates and restrictions until after a revenue-generating music festival is over while the Daily Caller reported on DC Mayor Muriel Bowser’s mask mandate hypocrisy. 
• The New York Post highlighted the outrage from a Biden administration official over the alarmist coverage from the New York Times and Washington Post over the data the CDC used to implement the new mask guidance, calling the coverage completely irresponsible.

Author’s Take

The Biden administration has no one to blame about the tenor and alarmism of coverage but themselves. They let this get out of hand. Firstly, public health officials who apparently are free to make whatever decisions they’d like are a hammer in a world full of nails. Their only response is “restrictions and mandates.” President Biden needs to show actual leadership, take the power away from these bureaucrats and understand there are other factors that must be considered: economic impact, social side effects, the ACTUAL data about children largely not being affected by coronavirus.

Finally, this elephant bear in the room needs to be addressed: The CDC’s data from Provincetown is almost as dubious as the Indian study that has no scientific bearing on the situation in America. The outbreak in Provincetown was during a gay festival called Bear Week, in which (vaccinated) participants were more….socially intimate with each other in enclosed spaces for extended periods of time. This is not average social behavior and should not have been used as an extrapolation of average delta variant spread.

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© Dallas Gerber, 2021