Chris Lange, FISM News
Washington D.C.’s Mayor Murial Bowser (D) announced Monday that city residents will no longer be required to show proof of vaccination to enter most businesses, beginning Tuesday, and that the city will end its mask requirements for many public venues, including bars, restaurants and even schools – just not for school children.
While the announcement is likely welcome news to struggling businesses and residents fed up with endless COVID-19 restrictions, many are puzzled by the insistence by some Democratic leaders that children must be masked, despite there being no scientific data pointing to the health protocol’s efficacy among the least-vulnerable population in terms of contracting the virus.
Bowser cited the city’s “precipitous drop” in case levels as justification for easing up on the restrictions, telling reporters “COVID is not as deadly as it was,” a fact she credits to widely available vaccines and high vaccination rates among city residents.
The mayor noted that cases are down 90% and hospitalizations have declined 95% since omicron infections were at their peak. “Getting vaccinated and boosted, we can’t emphasize enough,” Bowser added.
Several other Democratic leaders have already lifted or eased pandemic restrictions in their cities and states as the number of omicron variant infections continues to decline, though some suspect the policy changes have more to do with November’s midterm elections.
Democrats gave us #COVID mandates.
They gave us lockdowns.
They masked your kids.
And now they want you to forget it all happened.
Just in time for November.
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) February 14, 2022
The Biden administration, however, continues to double-down on its push for masks, particularly in schools.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters the administration continues “to recommend masking in areas of high and substantial transmission — which is basically the entire country at this point” during a Feb. 9 briefing. When pressed on the issue of children and masks, particularly concerning school boards and teachers’ unions that continue to require that they be worn in the classroom, Psaki said the administration continues to recommend adherence to CDC guidelines and that local school districts have the right to decide whether masks should be required, “which is what a number of these states are doing.”
During his interview with NBC’s Lester Holt last week, President Biden said Democrats who are lifting mask mandates are doing so prematurely. “I love how people talk about personal freedom,” the President said. “If your exercising [of] personal freedom puts someone else in jeopardy, their health in jeopardy, I don’t consider that being very – dealing with freedom,” he said.
Numerous photos have cropped up in recent weeks of Democratic leaders flouting mask mandates still in place in their cities and states, including a widely-circulated photo of a maskless Stacy Abrams’ posing with a classroom of fully-masked Georgia elementary school students and, more recently, multiple images of Democratic politicians and celebrities spotted maskless at Sunday’s Super Bowl in violation of NFL protocols while the The Children’s Voice Chorus of Miami choir were forced to perform wearing masks.
“Americans who watched the Super Bowl saw rich celebrities having a grand time with hardly a mask in sight. But under Democrats’ policies, first graders who watched that big maskless party last night had to wake up this morning and cover their own faces in order to go to school,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said from the Senate floor Monday.
Fourteen states still require masks in schools, but nine have either announced plans to phase them out or are facing challenges or limitations regarding the restrictions. In addition to the nation’s capital, Democratic-led California, Hawaii, New Mexico, New York and Washington have given no signal that they will lift mandates anytime soon.