Donald Trump blasted the Biden administration on Wednesday following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) decision to reverse its previous guidance and recommend masks be worn indoors in areas of substantial COVID transmission and in K-12 schools.
Back in May, the CDC lifted masking requirements for the vaccinated but reversed course on Tuesday, revising their recommendations because of the Delta variant of COVID, which is more contagious but less lethal—despite Joe Biden’s claims that it is more deadly.
“CDC recommends that everyone in K-12 schools wear a mask indoors, including teachers, staff, students and visitors regardless of vaccination status,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a press briefing.
Last week, Joe Biden hinted that the CDC was going to make this move. “The CDC is going to say that what we should do is, everyone under the age of 12 should probably be wearing a mask in school,” Biden said during his CNN town hall last Wednesday. “That’s probably what’s going to happen. Secondly, those over the age of 12 who are able to get vaccinated—if you’re vaccinated, you shouldn’t wear a mask. If you aren’t vaccinated, you should be wearing a mask.”
Biden also said that children under the age of 12 would be able to get vaccinated soon.
“We won’t go back,” Trump said in a statement. “We won’t mask our children. Joe Biden and his Administration learned nothing from the last year.”
“Brave Americans learned how to safely and responsibly live and fight back,” Trump added. “Don’t surrender to COVID. Don’t go back! Why do Democrats distrust the science? Don’t let this happen to our children or our Country.”
While the move appears to be driven by fear of the Delta variant spreading, infections amongst those fully vaccinated are extremely rare—according to an unpublished CDC document obtained by ABC News. The Delta variant is linked to over 83 percent of new cases nationwide, and only about 0.098 percent of new cases are amongst those previously vaccinated.
In short, Trump is right about this. The CDC’s recommendations are completely nonsensical. According to the CDC’s own data, not only is new infections of those fully vaccinated is extremely rare, but COVID is less deadly than the seasonal flu for kids ages 0-17 years,
Is she unnumerate or dishonest?
These are the CDC numbers. https://t.co/znBgqpPZIn pic.twitter.com/7n8AVyF4fV
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) July 28, 2021
Oh yeah, and according to Dr. Fauci, regular store-bought masks don’t protect healthy people from infection. “Masks are really for infected people to protect them from spreading infection to people who are not infected rather than protecting uninfected people from acquiring infection,” Fauci wrote on February 5, 2020. “The typical mask you buy in the drug store is not really effective in keeping out virus, which is small enough to pass through the material.” He later reversed course on this recommendation.
In short, these new CDC guidelines are pure political theatre. Trump knows this, and even the scientists at the CDC must know it, too.
PJM’s Stephen Kruiser asked earlier, “How are there any people left in America who think the CDC has any credibility?”
I don’t know the answer, but I bet they’re all Democrats.