Asking someone to don a mask inside may seem innocuous. “What’s the big deal?” they bemoan.
But is it necessary, does it have negative effects on the fight against COVID, and does indoor masking actually reduce transmission?
Aside from causing breathing and hygiene issues, these capricious changes to health guidance make it harder to persuade hesitant people to get vaccinated. A mask mandate for vaccinated people undermines the vaccine push, which allegedly is the focus of the Biden administration.
Requiring masks in government buildings, schools, and for two million visitors at the famous Minnesota State Fair? I attended my local county fair over the weekend and saw nary a face diaper. We follow real science in rural America.
The best way to prevent people from taking ill or dying from coronavirus is to increase vaccination. Nearly 200 million Americans have been jabbed — with natural immunity for tens of millions more — and despite what MSNBC anchors claim, Republicans aren’t the resisters. Blacks and Hispanics are the most likely groups to be skeptical of vaccines.
As coronavirus vaccine reluctance erodes, threats do not work; persuasion by reiterating that vaccines are safe and getting one makes it less likely you’ll die from coronavirus than be struck by lightning does.
Mandating masks for the vaccinated sends a destructive message to the contrary. It says even when you have the vaccine, you aren’t safe, even if we just told you the opposite was true.
Americans have grown distrustful of public health guidance, as their messaging blunders and politicization subvert trust.
The pandemic is evolving and also waning. By reimposing mask mandates for the vaccinated, Democrat politicians eliminate an effective incentive for those otherwise resistant to the vaccine.
Escaping masking requirements has been a strong incentive for people to get vaccinated.
Other incentives include money, like an Ohio lottery that led to a spike in vaccinations.
New York City’s vaccination campaign surged after their mayor offered $100 gift cards for shots.
Minnesota did similarly and also offered perks to prisoners.
But in his exclusive Alpha News interview, Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Neil Shah said Gov. Tim Walz did not defend freedom or keep residents safe.
“Walz was unable to stand up to unelected bureaucrats and make hard decisions. Your job is to do the hard work of saying, ‘Yep, I get that, but I can’t destroy all of these small businesses, I can’t force people to give up liberty and put their kids into masks.’ We scorched liberty. We destroyed the economy. We stole trillions of dollars in future earnings from a generation of children who had their education subsumed to the anti-science will of the unions. They’re talking about locking down again this fall, putting kids in masks again. Where’s the data to support?” Shah said.
Hectoring people and changing guidance when existing vaccines combat the current strain will further drive down confidence.
The United Kingdom left schools open, with no masks, and no measurable death increase from Delta. So why the panic, particularly at schools where almost no students became infected this summer?
“At this point, it’s sociopathic to make kids wear masks,” National Review’s Philip Klein said. “No segment of the population has suffered and sacrificed more, relative to the risk this virus presents to them, than children. It’s time to let kids be kids and go back to normal. If you mask them now, what’s the off-ramp?”
New CDC data show more than 99.99% of fully vaccinated people have no breakthrough cases resulting in hospitalization or death, debunking many narratives. Since we can never get to zero cases, let’s move forward with logic, not fear and edicts.
A.J. Kaufman
A.J. Kaufman is an Alpha News columnist. His work has appeared in the Baltimore Sun, Florida Sun-Sentinel, Indianapolis Star, Israel National News, Orange County Register, St. Cloud Times, Star-Tribune, and across AIM Media Midwest and the Internet. Kaufman previously worked as a school teacher and military historian.
