WASHINGTON — A surge in COVID-19 cases in late summer prompted the return of masks in parts of the country, reigniting a political war that temporarily became the centerpiece of a broader fight over the pandemic response in the last two elections.
President Joe Biden is at the center of the storm, again.
Hide or hide? That’s the question.
Biden, who wore a mask during the 2020 presidential campaign and was mocked by Donald Trump for it, donned a black mask during a medal of honor rite at the White House on Tuesday for an Army helicopter pilot from the Vietnam War. The day before the event, the first girl, Jill Biden, tested positive for COVID-19.
Biden has tested negative 3 times since the first lady tested positive and has no symptoms, the White House said. He will continue to be educated and wear a mask indoors when around other people, but no further adjustments to White House protocols were planned. .
On another occasion Wednesday, Biden walked in and out of the White House dining room with the mask in his hand, not his face. He said he tested negative but was told to keep wearing the mask. “Don’t tell them I wasn’t wearing him when I walked in,” she joked.
The resurgence of the mask as a political factor comes at an inopportune time for Biden, whose goal is to rebuild the country in the post-pandemic era. At the same time, Biden is preparing for next year’s re-election campaign. As local governments If masking policies are reinstated, Biden’s strategy will be closely watched as voters, still weary from the pandemic, decide whether to grant him another four years in office.
Some Republicans, feeling a political advantage, are already taking an anti-masking stance.
“To all the COVID tyrants who need to take away our freedom, heed those words: We will not deliver,” Trump, the leading candidate for next year’s GOP presidential nomination, said in a video posted on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
But masking protocols apply beyond the walls of the White House.
Several hospital systems in New York City, including United Health Services, Auburn Community Hospital and Upstate Medical, have reinstated mandatory mask policies to restrict the spread of the virus amid the summer outbreak.
Health care company Kaiser Permanente implemented a mask mandate for staff, patients and its Santa Rosa, California, facility in August.
In Atlanta, Morris Brown College announced in late August that it would require students and workers to wear masks on campus for two weeks, a measure that was later lifted. Rosemary Hills Elementary School in Silver Spring, Maryland, on Tuesday reinstated mask requirements for students and staff after 3 or more people in a classroom tested positive for COVID-19.
Lionsgate, the media and entertainment company, briefly asked its workers to wear masks on two floors of its five-story building in Santa Monica, California, before canceling the policy in late August.
At the White House, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden’s leadership will continue to work intensively with public fitness and fitness professionals to control the virus. Management has announced plans to reinstate the mask mandate. Jean-Pierre noted that the U. S. The U. S. Navy is in the most powerful position yet to combat COVID-19 and the viruses responsible for peak hospitalizations in the fall and winter.
Philip Landrigan, a physician and public fitness expert at Boston University, said a national mask order is needed today.
“We’re not where we were in 2020” in terms of infections, said Landrigan, director of the university’s program for global public fitness and unusual good. “COVID is coming back, but it remains to be noted to what extent, so the first line of defense remains vaccination. “
The need to wear a mask “depends on where you are in the country, what’s going on in your city or town and where you are,” Landrigan said. “If a user has to pass into a crowded place, this may be a good time to wear a mask. If you are outdoors, I don’t think it’s necessary. “
While Biden has announced plans for a federal mask mandate, some Republican lawmakers oppose the option of creating one amid renewed mask-wearing protocols at local hospitals and schools.
Sen. J. D. Vance, R-Ohio, introduced the Freedom of Breath Act Tuesday; It would ban the mask requirement for passengers on airlines or public transport and educational establishments until 31 December 2024. The bill was co-sponsored by Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. , Eric Schmitt, R-Mo. , and Mike Braun, R-Indiana.
“Various entities within our government, within the public fitness bureaucracy, there are local schools in the Washington domain that are now reimposing mask mandates,” Vance said in a statement. “It will come back unless we prevent this from happening. “
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky. , told USA TODAY that if Biden implements a federal mask mandate, it could be “risky” for him in the 2024 race.
“COVID-related mandates are not among the five most sensible electoral issues right now, but. . . they can go back to being in the top three as sensible as anything that motivates other people to vote if they do it in an election year,” Massie said.
Massie, along with 16 of his colleagues, filed a lawsuit against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year, seeking to end the federal requirement to wear a mask for others traveling on commercial airlines. The Biden administration ended that requirement in April of that year after a federal ruling in Florida struck down the order.
“I’m not opposed to wearing a mask if necessary,” Massie said, “but I think it shouldn’t be mandatory. “
Rep. Ralph Norman, R. C. , echoed Massie’s comments, calling the mask mandates “ridiculous. “
Whatever Biden does, the pandemic and the moves that are adopted in the states and the federal government “will probably be part of next year’s presidential campaign,” said Kevin Wagner, a political science professor at Florida Atlantic University.
“The more difficult question is to what extent the crusade will be faithful to this issue, and at the moment public opinion polls do not show that this is one of the biggest problems for voters,” Wagner said. replace and the government intervenes more. But at this point, it’s unlikely. “
Right now, the most important factor for the electorate is the economy, according to Matthew Schmidt, an associate professor of political science and national security at the University of New Haven. A Wall Street Journal poll conducted Aug. 24-30 found that 59 percent of the electorate disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy.
“It will eclipse COVID and almost every other issue, in the absence of a primary event,” Schmidt said. “Moreover, Biden’s reaction to COVID is already a built-in factor. Those who don’t like his policies won’t. “It will replace if you adjust your policies. Whatever he does, that electorate will use him to justify the low opinion they already have of him. “
Despite this, Biden views COVID-19 as a chronic crisis, said David Niven, an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati’s School of Public and International Affairs.
“People have long since lost patience with COVID as a concept, either as a sacrifice or as a set of rules,” he said. “There’s not much the president can do right now because Americans have just lost interest in history. “
Either way, there doesn’t seem to be much for new pandemic-related restrictions, and their implementation may alienate voters, Wagner said.
“Nationally, the effects have been mixed and there is a clearly partisan view of how the government has operated and whether the measures taken have gone too far or were not enough,” Wagner said. Challenge again, it may only indicate political elections as well as presidential elections. But it’s too early to tell. “