Over at Press Run Eric Boehlert documents a new media obsession, yet another right wing whining point. Why, they ask, does Biden, a fully vaccinated person, continue to wear a mask. For that matter, why should any vaccinated person where a mask.
He observes:
It’s slightly jarring that in the wake of the Trump presidency, when Americans were urged to inject bleach as a way to combat Covid-19, that Biden sometimes wearing a cloth facial covering is treated as a pressing news story by the Beltway media. And the recent emphasis isn’t just on Biden. More journalists are setting their judgmental sights on those vaccinated liberals who remain cautious and continue to wear masks, dubbing them “pandemic addicts,” “irrational” and “odd.”
As Digby points out here, this line of attack comes straight from Fox, Tucker Carlson especially.
Perhaps I’m odd, but I don’t continue to wear a mask when I’m with other people, such as in stores or at the Y. I do it because we are not yet out of the woods, and if the vaccinated stop wearing masks now, it would make any policy requiring only the unvaccinated to wear one totally unenforceable. I wear a mask primarily because we are still in a phase of this plague in which it is advisable for certain people to wear masks, and if I and other vaccinated people stop wearing them, so will the unvaccinated. It’s social cooperation. An alternative might be “vaccine passports”, but the very people that are aghast at the vaccinated wearing masks are those opposing, and in some case making it illegal, for places of public accomodation to restrict their facilities to the vaccinated. It is also the case that these are the very people who would be attacking Biden for not wearing a mask, if he chose not to do so in certain contexts. (Update: Well looky here, here it is ) It isn’t surprising when the Foxists and the other right wing media types push these points, but when the “mainstream” press goes along, it’s particularly outrageous.
Afterword: After writing the above, I heard the news that the CDC is saying that as of next week, we vaccinated folks can ditch the masks and social distancing. If we lived in a country chock full of sane people, that would be great news. But I think we’re in store for an uptick in COVID cases, as the unvaccinated Foxistas take advantage of this move and also ditch their masks. I suppose that for the most part it will be the crazies getting sick, since the rest of us are vaccinated, but I’m sure that Tucker will find a way to blame it all on Joe Biden.
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