Democratic presidential candidate calls for new mask mandate

If you thought nobody in public life still believes we need to reinstitute significant COVID precautions, think again.

Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson renewed calls for targeted mask mandates, among other cautious COVID policies, in a tweet on Tuesday. She wrote, “Covid is still a threat, and there are many long covid sufferers. We should reinstate mask mandates in healthcare settings; ensure free high quality masks and PCR tests; and mandate effective air filtration for all public transportation, buildings, and businesses.”

THE MIXED MESSAGES OF BIDENOMICS

Surely she is joking ... right?

What does she mean by “Covid is still a threat”? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID data tracker, 99.41% of U.S. counties have “Low” new COVID hospital admissions. That should mean this is a closed case, as there is no threat of hospitals being "overwhelmed." Add on the fact nobody will object to someone, particularly in healthcare settings, voluntarily wearing a mask for personal reasons, and we can easily conclude there is no justification for renewing one-size-fits-all mask mandates of any kind. Research shows they don’t work, and we all know from personal experience their adverse effects on social interaction and connection.

It is equally unclear what she hopes to accomplish by mandating air filtration. I agree it is one way that transmission within a given area drops — studies support that idea — but it also ought not to be a priority right now for the basic reason that reducing the spread of COVID is not a priority right now. There are a million other things to focus on addressing other than installing such filtration systems. It is a project that would likely not even be completed for a few years — or more, considering how inefficient government proves itself to be even with the most basic of tasks. I honestly don’t know what the purpose of proposing this is at this specific moment.

But most of all, this will not happen because we’re simply done with COVID panic and restrictions. Everybody is. Even the most progressive college campuses in the country, places such as The George Washington University, dropped their mask mandates many months ago. We lived with COVID restrictions for years even though they didn’t stop us from eventually getting the virus anyway. There is not, and can never be, an appetite to go back to our middle-of-COVID mentality. The voters must make that more than clear, and I have no doubt they will if need be.

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Jack Elbaum is a summer 2023 Washington Examiner fellow.