Science or Politics?

In the US House of Representatives, Speaker Pelosi has imposed strict rules for the requirement of face masks. At the same time, President Biden has proposed compulsive face masks for government employees.

If you look at the official figures for COVID-19 in the capital, it is difficult to see justifications for any new restrictions. (Source). 

It seems to be more a question of political positioning than public health.

“Based on the House rules, members first get warnings for evading mask rules, then $500 fines for second offenses and $2,500 for offenses after that. The House Committee on Ethics has issued a considerable number of fines and warnings since the mask rule was first instated. Members had been allowed to be on the House floor without masks since June 11, but the House attending physician reversed that guidance Tuesday night as the Delta variant emerges as the dominant strain of Covid across the country and in light of new US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance.

Underlying the mask debate that is back to being front and center among members in the House is the question of how many members are still not vaccinated. CNN reported in May that 100% of House Democrats had been vaccinated but only 44.8% of House Republicans were known to have gotten the shots.”  (CNN July 28, 2021).

All this commotion is difficult to understand since it was previously scientifically proven, which has now also been confirmed in practice, that masks have no significant positive effect.

We have written about this multiple times, for example, in our article "Science about the effect of face masks."

Face masks were never good for medical protection but seem to serve well as a political divide.