Biden Pressures States Banning Mask Mandates, Forces COVID Shot on Nursing Homes

by sam

Samuel Case, FISM News

 

Wednesday, in the midst of the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan, President Biden gave a message on the Delta variant surge in the United States, and announced several ways he’d be using his executive authority to effectuate pandemic policy. 

In the message Biden directly challenged Republican states banning mask mandates in schools, such as Texas and Florida, and was directing the Secretary of Education to “use all of his authority, and legal action, if appropriate” to help districts who are defying mask mandates in the eight states.

When making the announcement Biden claimed that these states are “banning masks in school,” a confusion that Texas Governor Greg Abbott cleared up in a tweet earlier this week, saying, “The ban doesn’t prohibit using masks. Anyone who wants to wear a mask can do so, including in schools.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis fired back at Biden for making masking in schools his primary focus in the midst of other issues the country is facing, naming the border and inflation as examples.  “You have all these problems and yet the White House and Biden, their number one issue is they’re so intent on having the government force kindergartners, first graders to have to wear masks for eight hours a day,” DeSantis said. 

In the same message Biden also announced that starting in September nursing homes must mandate vaccines to employees or risk losing Medicare and Medicaid funding. This is the first time the White House has directly used withholding funds as a tactic to strong-arm organizations into requiring COVID-19 vaccination.

Biden’s announcements come as COVID-19 cases are skyrocketing. CDC data shows a 7 day moving average of 133,055 cases in the United States, making for the second highest peak in cases since January 11, where the average was 253, 299. However, deaths are still at the lowest they’ve been since the beginning of April 2020, with a 7-day moving average of 640. For comparison at its peak in January, the death average was 3,644.

Watch Biden’s full message: 

 

DONATE NOW