face masks
Biden administration pressures Florida Gov. DeSantis over school mask policies
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has written Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis saying that if his administration withholds state funding from school districts that enact mask mandates, those schools can use federal coronavirus relief dollars to make up for the penalties. In a letter to DeSantis and Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona wrote […]
National Park Service renews mask mandate for all visitors
The National Park Service on Monday reinstated a mask mandate for all visitors, workers and volunteers at NPS buildings and crowded outdoor areas, regardless of vaccination status. In May, the agency said it would require only unvaccinated people to wear masks. Recently, as the delta variant of the coronavirus has led to a spike in […]
CDC says the vaccinated should wear masks indoors in areas with high infection rates
WASHINGTON — Federal health officials on Tuesday urged Americans in areas of the country with the highest surges in COVID-19 infections to once again wear masks when they are in public, indoor settings — even if they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The updated recommendations marked a sharp shift from the agency’s guidance in May that Americans fully vaccinated against […]
States with strong lockdowns had better economies and fewer deaths
Just as there’s a lot of sketchy Anti-Vaxxer Propaganda, there are also a lot of flawed attacks upon lockdowns. But just as lockdowns did shut down the skyrocketing death rates, new economic data reveals that those states that implemented such measures designed to save lives also did a better job of rescuing their economies as […]
Marjorie Taylor Greene comparison of mask-wearing and the Holocaust condemned by House GOP leader
WASHINGTON — U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday condemned remarks by Georgia’s Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene comparing the wearing of masks and vaccination logos to the persecution and murder of Jews by Nazis during the Holocaust. Greene, a Republican, in an interview last week with the Christian Broadcasting Network made the comparison, according to […]
Masks off: The nuance behind the CDC’s controversial decision
In other times, a “masks off” announcement might have been celebrated. Instead, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stepped straight into controversy. The confusion was palpable. Debates immediately spun out over whether the CDC’s decision to remove masks was backed by science. Some experts quickly condemned the decision. The largest nurses’ union came out strongly against the new […]
CDC: You can ditch the mask in most places, indoors and out, if fully vaccinated
WASHINGTON — Americans fully vaccinated against COVID-19 do not need to wear a mask in most situations, indoors and outdoors, federal health officials said in an updated set of recommendations Thursday that marks a major turning point in the pandemic. The announcement is a shift from earlier federal guidance, which had urged people who are vaccinated to continue […]
Half a million deaths later, Ohio gov says he didn’t foresee magnitude of pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic has been grinding on for so many months that it’s easy to become numb to its staggering cost. But now, as the United States is crossing the grim milestone of 500,000 dead from the disease, it seems as if February 2020 marked the end of a different, easier era. In Ohio, where […]
Biden orders tougher mask rules as part of overhauled COVID-19 strategy
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s first policy focus after being sworn in? Overhauling the disjointed federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which claimed another 4,400 American lives on his first day in office alone. “The brutal truth is, it’s going to take months before we can get the majority of Americans vaccinated,” Biden said Thursday. […]
How individual rights and government regulation are both necessary for a free society
I’ve been thinking a lot, recently, about the tension between demanding “individual rights” – in the sense of deciding whether or not to wear a mask – and calling for more action on the part of our government to protect us from the coronavirus pandemic. I’m a political theorist, which means I study how communities […]
Biden wants mask mandates nationwide: ‘We can save tens of thousands of lives’
WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden’s coronavirus response plan seeks to put a national mask mandate in place by calling on all governors to require face coverings in their states. It’s a move that public health experts say could dramatically reduce the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths. But putting wider mask laws in place would […]
Trump, Republican enablers busy proving they are a threat to the integrity of the American Republic
Words matter. The words of America’s elected leaders matter. Their silence matters, too. Take the coronavirus pandemic. Following the lead of President Donald Trump, hundreds of elected officials across the country — including many in Ohio — have argued against the use of face masks in spite of overwhelming scientific consensus that they represent the […]