Mask Mandates Return; CNN Turns on Dr. Fauci’s Mask Agenda

With the 2024 presidential election beginning to really gear up, coincidentally, we're starting to see a rise in the mask and other types of mandates going into effect across the entirety of the country. Last week, on our very program, we already covered the mask mandates, which have gone back into effect at various schools, various businesses, and various hospitals, as well as the vaccine mandates that school kids are still having to deal with. However, since then, masks seem to have made a bigger resurgence. For instance, on your screen right now is a picture of Joe Biden. This picture is not from last year. It's not from 2020. It's not from 2021. But rather, this photo of Joe Biden wearing a mask was taken two days ago, after he found out that his wife had tested positive for COVID. Likewise, you had a fascinating situation playing itself out over on The View. Take a look. As you can see, Whoopi is not here. She has COVID. Yes. It's back. But she's on the mend. She's on the tail end, and she'll probably be back this week. But I'm sorry she's not here, for those of you who are looking forward to seeing her. After which, Whoopi Goldberg joined the show through video chat. I just have COVID. I'm still testing positive, apparently. I have to have a clear test before I can come back. So, you know, I can't wait to get back and hang out. But until then, it's me and my mask, and I'm sort of confined to my room. Now, why exactly she was wearing a mask indoors, by herself, on national television, no less, is really anyone's guess. But she was. And indeed, right here in New York City, where we film our program, the local news outlets are beginning to prime people about the possibility of a return of the mandates. For instance, here's a clip from a local Fox News affiliate. And notice how the presenter uses the word forced when describing these mandates. COVID cases are on the rise across the nation and in our area, which means something many of us thought we'd seen the last of is back. Businesses, hospitals, even colleges, including one in our area, reinstating mask mandates. So will there be more to come as we head into the fall? And are people ready to be forced to mask up again? Are people ready to be forced to mask up again? That is, you can say, the million dollar question. Now, it is worth mentioning that there is a rather sizable contingent of people here in New York, at least, who have never stopped wearing masks. On the subway, there are still plenty of people who have been wearing a mask since the year 2020, all the way up until today. However, the majority of people no longer do. And so, in order to get masks back into the national conversation, the proponents of masking recently decided to bring out the big guns. 82-year-old Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former chief medical advisor to Joe Biden. And if you've noticed, despite the fact that he was plastered on every television screen for the past two and a half years, after he left the NIH back in December, well, we pretty much stopped seeing or hearing from Dr. Fauci at all. It almost felt like he rode off into the sunset with the only thing to remember him by was his response to AIDS, COVID, and those dog experiments that most people don't talk about. However, with the resurgence of mask mandates across the whole country, well, Dr. Fauci has reemerged to justify mask wearing once again to the public. But what's truly amazing is that even the hosts over at CNN, who have been pushing forward the mask agenda for years, have done essentially an about face. And now they are open to questioning the science, or lack thereof, behind these masks. Here's, for instance, an exchange that took place just two days ago between a host at CNN and Dr. Anthony Fauci. I'm going to refer to one of them. You've heard about it before. I heard about it from a number of radio callers. Bret Stephens in The Times talked about Cochran. Put that on the screen. The most rigorous and comprehensive analysis of scientific studies conducted on the efficacy of masks for reducing the spread of respiratory illness, including COVID-19, was published last month. His conclusions, said Tom Jefferson, the Oxford epidemiologist, who is the lead author, were unambiguous. There is just no evidence that they, masks, make any difference, he told the journalist Mayan Demasi, full stop. But wait, hold on. What about the N95 masks as opposed to the lower quality surgical or cloth masks? Makes no difference. None of it, he said. Well, what about the studies that initially persuaded policymakers to impose mask mandates? They were convinced by non-randomized studies, flawed observational studies. How do we get beyond that finding of that particular review? Yeah, but there are other studies, Michael, that show at an individual level for individual, when you're talking about the effect on the epidemic or the pandemic as a whole, the data are less strong. But when you talk about as an individual basis of someone protecting themselves or protecting themselves from spreading it to others, there's no doubt that there are many studies that show that there is an advantage. When you took it the broad population level, like the Cochran study, the data are less firm with regard to the effect on the overall pandemic. But we're not talking about that. We're talking about an individual's effect on their own safety. That's a bit different than the broad population level. That was possibly the most amazing answer I've ever heard from a government official. Basically, to counter the argument that the masks don't work at a population level, Dr. Fauci says that they still work at an individual level, meaning that when an individual person wears a mask, that person is somehow better protected. But when you scale it up and everyone wears a mask, it has no effect on the population. It's probably better not to think about that too much. It's also probably better not to look at this graph right here, showing the COVID cases for states that had mask mandates compared to states that didn't have mask mandates and how they pretty much are exactly the same. Furthermore, it's also probably a good idea not to look at the actual boxes that these masks come in, where they specifically say that they are not effective against COVID because advertising laws here in the U.S. force them to disclose such information to the end consumers. It's probably better not to look at that at all, especially on platforms like YouTube, which recently implemented medical misinformation policies, which make it such that if you go too far against the stance coming down from the WHO, your video will actually get taken down. Although, to be frank with you, the very fact that CNN is now openly questioning the so-called signs behind masks, it likely represents a real shift in the general Overton window of what's acceptable to discuss in the public sphere. Regardless, this talk about masks and mandates come on the heels of what is apparently a rise in the number of COVID cases across the whole country. And seeing the writing on the wall, lawmakers are attempting to preemptively pass legislation which would prevent the federal government from being able to, once again, issue the types of edicts that they issued over the past two and a half, three years. For instance, you had Senator J.D. Vance from Ohio recently introduce a new bill to the Senate, the so-called Freedom to Breathe Act, which would ban federal officials from issuing mask mandates for schools, for domestic air travel, as well as on public transit in general for the next 15 months. And the reason that this particular bill was for the next 15 months was very likely a nod to the suspicion that such mandates will be implemented leading into the 2024 general election. Here was, in fact, what Senator Vance said while speaking on the Senate floor regarding this bill. Quote, We are going to have people who get sick from viruses. It has always been thus. The way to respond to it is with calmness, resolve, and strategic thinking, not by pretending the world is ending because what has always happened is going to happen once again. We cannot repeat the anxiety, the stress, and the non-stop panic of the last couple of years. We are on the other side of the pandemic. We don't need mask mandates. However, the story gets a lot deeper, which we'll get into right after a quick word from today's sponsor. Right. A quick question for you. If right now you were told that you and your family can no longer buy any more food, the supermarket store shelves are empty, all the supply chains have been disrupted, you just have to make do with whatever you already have. Well, in that situation, how long would you last? A week? A month? A year? Maybe half a year? Well, that question is very important because you never know if, or frankly, when something like that happens. And as the old saying goes, it's better to be a full year early than a single day late. And so the time to stock up on emergency food is today. And the best company to use is My Patriot Supply, the sponsor of today's episode. And if you head on over to the website that they made for us, preparewithroman.com, they're offering our viewers a very special promo. You can save $200 on each three-month emergency food kit that you buy. And these food kits are awesome. They last for well over two decades in your closet, and they can provide you with over 2,000 calories per day, right when you need it the most. Their shipping is fast, it's free, and it's discreet. So head on over to preparewithroman.com to make sure that you and your family are ready for whatever might be coming down the pipe. However, this measure actually proved unsuccessful. That's because Senator Ed Markey, he's a Democrat from the state of Massachusetts, he blocked the bill, arguing that, quote, The bill would undermine the ability of states and local authorities to make decisions about mask mandates in their communities. He also criticized the bill for silencing public health experts who have played a crucial role in guiding the nation through the pandemic. Although, to be frank, this bill was aimed at the federal government, not at the local and state governments. And so it's not exactly clear how it would handcuff the local communities from doing what they had to do. Regardless, there you have it. Mask mandates appear to be going into effect in a piecemeal fashion across the country. CNN is openly questioning the efficacy of the masks. Dr. Fauci is back at it from his role as a private citizen. And the bill, which would have effectively prevented nationwide mask mandates, just got rejected. Now, when we here at The Epoch Times reached out to the CDC to get clarification on their general stance, they got back to us saying, in part, that their recommendations are tied to hospital admission levels, implying that if hospital admission levels reached a certain threshold, it's within the realm of possibility that the mandates would return. And given the fact that COVID has become something like an endemic virus, like the flu, well, it's only natural that come wintertime, there will be an uptick in cases. And with an uptick in cases will come a rise in hospital admission levels, which the CDC has said that they have tied to their so-called recommendations. And so we'll just have to see what comes of it all. Just for your reference, though, the Department of Health and Human Services already maintains a website of, quote, updated CDC guidance. And if you scroll down on that website to the part about the updated masking guidance, it reads as follows. Quote, the CDC recommends that vaccinated and unvaccinated people wear masks in public indoor settings when the COVID risk to your community is high. If you'd like to go deeper into anything that we discussed in today's episode, I'll throw all my research notes down into the description box below this video for you to peruse at your own leisure. 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