(Headline USA) One of the Republican Party’s most prominent rising stars is mocking new government recommendations calling for more widespread use of masks to blunt an alleged coronavirus surge.
“Did you not get the CDC’s memo?” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis joked Wednesday before an audience of activists and lawmakers in a hotel ballroom in Salt Lake City. “I don’t see you guys complying.”
From Texas to South Dakota, Republican leaders responded with hostility and defiance to updated masking guidance from public health bureaucrats, whose credibility is shot after advising that even fully vaccinated people return to wearing masks indoors “if they live in areas with high rates of virus transmission.”
The backlash reopened the war over pandemic restrictions just as efforts to persuade unvaccinated Americans to get shots appeared to be making headway.
The response reflects deep resistance among many GOP voters to restrictions aimed at containing a virus that poses minimal personal threat. There is also growing frustration and confusion over ever-shifting rules and guidance, putting the CDC’s reputation in the toilet.
Many Republican leaders are blocking the dubious preventative measures against the virus.
At least 18 Republican-led states have moved to prohibit vaccine passports or to ban public entities from requiring proof of vaccination. And some have prohibited schools from requiring any student or teacher to wear a mask or be vaccinated.
In its announcement, the CDC cited troubling new research — which they refuse to show the public — that found that fully vaccinated people can spread the delta variant just like the unvaccinated, putting those who haven’t received the shots or who have compromised immune systems at heightened risk. The medical professionals seem to fail to understand that many Americans don’t see the point of getting the vaccine if they can still become infected.
The CDC also recommended that all teachers, staff and students wear masks inside school buildings, regardless of vaccination status.
The backlash was swift.
“We won’t go back. We won’t mask our children,” declared former president Donald Trump. “Why do Democrats distrust the science?”
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson called the new guidance “disappointing and concerning” and “inconsistent with the overwhelming evidence surrounding the efficacy of the vaccines and their proven results.”
He, like others, warned that the measure would undermine efforts to encourage vaccine holdouts to get their shots by casting further doubt on the efficacy of approved vaccines.
Last week, White House officials reported that vaccination rates were on the rise in some states where COVID-19 cases were soaring, as more Republican leaders implored their constituents to lay lingering doubts aside and get the shots to protect themselves. That included Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, who has pleaded with unvaccinated residents, saying they are the ones “letting us down.”
“This self-inflicted setback encourages skepticism and vaccine hesitancy at a time when the goal is to prevent serious illnesses and deaths from COVID-19 through vaccination,” Parson tweeted. “This decision only promotes fear & further division among our citizens.”
The announcement “will unfortunately only diminish confidence in the vaccine and create more challenges for public health officials 一 people who have worked tirelessly to increase vaccination rates,” echoed Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, who has banned mask and vaccine mandates in his state.
In his Wednesday speech, DeSantis took particular aim at the CDC’s call for kids to wear masks in the classroom.
“It’s not healthy for these students to be sitting there all day, 6-year-old kids in kindergarten covered in masks,” he said.
And in South Dakota, Gov. Kristi Noem called out the CDC for shifting its position on masking “AGAIN.” She said that those who are worried about the virus can get vaccinated, wear a mask or stay home, but that “Changing CDC guidelines don’t help ensure the public’s trust.”
On Capitol Hill, some Republicans were in revolt after the Capitol’s attending physician sent a memo informing members that masks would again have to be worn inside the House at all times.
The change set off a round robin of insults, with Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy “a moron” after McCarthy tweeted, “The threat of bringing masks back is not a decision based on science, but a decision conjured up by liberal government officials who want to continue to live in a perpetual pandemic state.”
The mandate also prompted an angry confrontation, as Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., verbally assailed Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah, who exited the House chamber and walked past her without a face covering.
Conservatives also forced a vote to adjourn the chamber in protest to the mandate, which was defeated along mostly party lines.
“We have a crisis at our border, and we’re playing footsie with mask mandates in the people’s House,” railed Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, the motion’s sponsor. “The American people are fed up. They want to go back to life. They want to go back to business. They want to go back to school without their children being forced to wear masks.”
Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.
