Democrats and Media Allies Claim ‘Science Has Changed’ on Mask Mandates as Midterms Approach

Susan Berry, PhD

 

As the midterm elections approach, a number of Democrat governors are now following in the steps of Republican Governors Ron DeSantis (FL) and Glenn Youngkin (VA) in support of dropping mask mandates.

Supported by their political and media allies, the governors of states, including New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, California, and Oregon are now announcing mask mandates in schools may be dropped soon, as The New York Times reported Tuesday.

The pronouncements arrive also as the Freedom Convoy spreads from Canada around the globe – a sign that people around the world are fed up with mask and vaccine mandates.

As journalist and author Glenn Greenwald noted, CNN medical analyst and former Planned Parenthood CEO Dr. Leana Wen said Tuesday she supports lifting some pandemic mandates because “the science has changed.”

“There was and is a time and place for pandemic restrictions, but when they were put in, it was always with the understanding that they would be removed as soon as we can. … The science has changed,” she said. “We know that vaccines protect very well against Omicron, which is the dominant variant.”

“The responsibility should shift from a government mandate, imposed from the state or the local district of a school,” Wen added. “Rather, it should shift to an individual responsibility by the family.”

“This is something to behold,” tweeted media and political analyst Joe Concha, who observed Wen’s claim of the “science having suddenly “changed.”

Just months ago, Wen wanted to punish Americans who chose not to be vaccinated, but now she says the “science has changed.”

In July, Grabien founder Tom Elliott observed Wen said during a CNN appearance life “needs to be hard for people to remain unvaccinated.”

And, in September, Wen insisted “masks are a very powerful layer of protection,” and “we are nowhere near” allowing children to attend school without masks.

The former Planned Parenthood president added it could be possible that, if all children in a particular classroom were vaccinated, or all children and teachers were tested every morning, she could see the mask mandate being lifted at some point.

She insisted, however, that getting all children vaccinated as soon as possible is key to considering whether masks could be eliminated.

As The Star News Network reported Tuesday, however, other countries have already recommended against vaccinating young children, because the benefits do not outweigh the risks, Reuters reported.

“With the knowledge we have today, with a low risk for serious disease for kids, we don’t see any clear benefit with vaccinating them,” Sweden Health Agency official Britta Bjorkholm said during a recent news conference.

A study from the UK, published in January at Science Direct, found that even children with immune system impairments or vulnerabilities were not at higher risk for serious COVID illness.

Researchers studied 1,527 children and young adults considered to be “immunocompromised” and found COVID infections occurred in the participants “with no increased risk of severe disease,” and none of them, in fact, died.

Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY-8) gave credit to Biden for “crush[ing] the virus” during a press conference Tuesday:

Here’s where we are in America: job creation is up, wages are up, unemployment is down, and the omicron variant is in retreat. And that’s not by accident. That’s because, under President Biden’s leadership, a public health infrastructure was put into place, beginning with the American Rescue Plan, without a single Republican vote, to ensure that we can do everything possible to crush the virus, and that is what has been happening.

Similarly, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D- NY-18) linked to a New York Times article touting Democrat states that are now eliminating mask mandates.

“Democrats’ plan to fight COVID is working – cases are down & vaccines are widely available. Now, it’s time to give people their lives back,” Maloney tweeted. “With science as our guide, we’re ready to start getting back to normal.”

President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Randi Weingarten told MSNBC’s Morning Joe she is “in favor of an off-ramp on masks,” as she commented on New Jersey Governor Murphy’s decision to lift the mask mandate in schools on March 7.

“I think it’s important to have a science-based metric that people can plan for,” Weingarten added.

Florida Governor DeSantis urged Americans not to allow the Left to “whitewash” its own “failures and hypocrisy,” and added “our children were used as pawns in their political games.”

Even within the Biden administration, disagreement exists about where the United States stands regarding the coronavirus.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Biden administration’s chief medical advisor, told the Financial Times Tuesday the United States is moving away from the “full-blown” pandemic phase of the Chinese coronavirus and vaguely suggested that “soon” Americans will no longer need to look to the federal government for direction:

As we get out of the full-blown pandemic phase of Covid-19, which we are certainly heading out of, these decisions will increasingly be made on a local level rather than centrally decided or mandated. There will also be more people making their own decisions on how they want to deal with the virus.

Biden’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, however, disagreed with the Democrat governors’ plans to drop mask mandates.

Walensky told Reuters Tuesday “now is not the moment” to end mask mandates in schools or other public places.

“Right now our CDC guidance has not changed,” she asserted. “We continue to endorse universal masking in schools.”

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Susan Berry, PhD, is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].

 

 

 

          

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