Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) announced Thursday that once the Senate is back in session he aims to put the kibosh on mandatory face mask-wearing for air travelers.
“When the Senate returns to session, I will be introducing an immediate repeal of the mask mandate on planes. Enough! Time to stop this farce and let people travel in peace!” the Republican lawmaker tweeted.
When the Senate returns to session, I will be introducing an immediate repeal of the mask mandate on planes. Enough… https://t.co/4AND3Kbxk5
— Senator Rand Paul (@Senator Rand Paul)1625756823.0
Paul, who has served as a senator from the state of Kentucky since 2011, is the son of former U.S. Congressman Ron Paul. The Senate is slated to be back in session Monday.
Reactions were mixed among the thousands of Twitter users who responded to Paul’s tweet, with some slamming the lawmaker’s plan and others expressing hearty approval.
“The families of over 600,000 people who died from COVID don’t think it’s a farce,” one tweet said in response to Paul’s announcement.
“Weird, my definition of peace is not having anyone in my family contract a deadly virus because some conservative virtue signaler was too afraid of what people would think if he wore a small piece of fabric to cover up his blowholes,” another tweet declared.
But in addition to the critics, some were fully on board with Paul’s plan to push back against mandatory mask-wearing aboard airplanes.
“Thank you! Yes, the madness needs to end!,” a tweet said.
“Thank you Senator Rand Paul! Enough IS Enough!!” another account tweeted.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, less than half of the total U.S. population has been fully vaccinated (47.7%) while a bit more than half of the total population (55.2%) has received at least one vaccine dose.
Those statistics are much higher when it comes to the individuals ages 65 and older, as 78.8% of the population within that age bracket has been fully vaccinated while 88.5% of the population within that age range has received at least one dose.
While the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines each involve receiving two shots, the Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine involves receiving just one shot.
There have been more than 33 million COVID-19 cases and more than 606,000 COVID-19 deaths so far in the U.S., according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.