The President Doesn’t Make ‘the Rules’

Your dad wants to have a word:

No, this is not “the rule.” The president isn’t empowered to make any such rules. It speaks poorly of the nation that he uses this paternalistic tone. You don’t have to wear a mask or get vaccinated if you’re okay with the risk. Or you can get vaccinated and wear a mask, if you’re some kind of sadomasochist. It’s up to you.

Or, if you want, you can listen to Biden. The problem, I’m afraid, is that the president has proven himself an irrational science-denying hysteric on the question. Less than two weeks ago, the man was still fumbling around with masks and social distancing — even when in a room with other immunized people and outside. Biden participated in the international climate summit on Zoom, with a cloth over his face.

When asked why he wore them, Biden claimed that it’s “a patriotic responsibility for God’s sake.” Now, less than two weeks later, his administration says fully vaccinated people “can go without masks or physical distancing in many cases, even when they are indoors or in large groups.” What’s changed? Are the vaccinated now less asymptomatic?

Journalists have spent months asking this scaremongering fanatic, Dr. Fauci — who still wants kids to wear masks — exactly what we can and can’t do, as if he would have any power to dictate such things if individuals, politicians, and companies ignored him. Some people, apparently, still can’t kick the habit.

Why on earth would you put a mask on a small, healthy child, who, even at the nadir of the pandemic, faced an infinitesimal threat from COVID and posed a minuscule one to others?  Temporary safety measures are not religious rites and masks are not patriotic accessories. You can quit now. Who cares what Fauci or Biden say? Stop torturing your children.