As resistance to vaccine and mask mandates grows, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is doubling down on its recommendation that children and staff wear masks while attending school even if they have been vaccinated, deepening the divide over how to deal with what appears to be a waning COVID-19.
An expert advisory panel of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended the agency approve Pfizer-BioNTech’s two-dose, low-dose vaccine for use in children between the ages of 5 and 11.
However, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky says masks on school children weren’t going away anytime soon.
“[A]s we head into these winter months, we know we cannot be complacent,” Walensky said in an October 20 press briefing. “So, right now, we are going to continue to recommend masks in all schools for all people in those schools.”
President Joe Biden announced on September 9 that his administration was developing a rule that would give the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) authority to require all private employers with 100 or more employees to mandate vaccines or have employees submit to weekly COVID-19 tests. The rule, which is certain to be challenged in court, could affect as many as 80 million workers, and businesses could face fines of up to $14,000 per violation.
States Exert Authority
Officials in a number of states are taking actions to resist vaccine and mask mandates.
In Florida, which currently has the lowest per capita COVID rate in the contiguous 48 states,.Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on October 22 called a special session of the State Legislature to counter vaccine and mask mandates.
A proposal under consideration in Florida would provide reemployment assistance to people who are terminated for failure to comply with an employer’s vaccine mandate. Another provision would require employers to provide religious and health exemptions to vaccine mandates. Companies that fail to notify employees about the exemptions could be sued by fired employees.
In Oklahoma, state Attorney General John O’Conner said businesses should ignore the Biden vaccine mandate. “There are currently no rules to require employers to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine,” stated O’Conner on October 14. “I urge Oklahoma employers to disregard the Biden administration’s wishes to the contrary.”
In the same vein, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) on October 5 issued an executive order directing state agencies to resist the Biden vaccine mandate. “As long as I am your governor, the state of Alabama will not force anyone to take a COVID-19 vaccine.”
Legal Challenges
“The courts are where this will be resolved,” stated Ivey.
Indeed, by October 29, the Biden administration was facing lawsuits filed by nineteen states, with some jointly and others, independently: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.
A federal vaccine mandate that targets the military, federal workers, and U.S. government contractors is now the subject of a class-action lawsuit filed by U.S. Marines, Navy Seals, and other parties. The plaintiffs argue they have not been afforded religious exemptions and that the mandate violates their First Amendment protection of religious freedom.
Resist ‘At All Costs’
Mask and vaccine mandates need to be fought at every level, says Patrick Wood, founder, and president of Citizens for Free Speech.
“In a nation that was historically regulated and constrained by the rule of law, today’s major actors such as government leaders and agencies, corporations, Big Tech and Big Pharma, have embraced outright lawlessness,” Wood told Health Care News.
“They are not merely lawbreakers, but rather altogether lawless. In other words, they ignore or reject standing laws, statutes, and regulations to make up and enforce policies out of their own imaginations as they tell us that it’s all for our own good. These very dangerous behavior patterns are identical to those that fostered the rise of Hitler during WWII, and must be resisted at all costs,” said Wood.
Even mask orders require resistance, says Norm Singleton, president of the Campaign for Liberty. “I have a friend who pulled her son out of a government school because he came home after wearing a mask for six hours with a high fever. She told me several other parents said their children also came home with high fevers—even though the children are forced to stay 6 feet apart and not share supplies,” said Singleton.
“The masks mandates are more dangerous to children than COVID and completely unnecessary since children are at very low risk of contracting or spreading COVID,” said Singleton. “The only bright part of the mask mandates is they are causing more parents to explore alternatives to government schools and/or become involved in actively challenging schools.”
‘No Benefit of Masking’
The CDC’s Walensky told reporters schools that mandated masks were “three and a half times less likely to have school outbreaks requiring school closure.”
The data, however, is inconclusive, says Chad Savage, M.D., founder of YourChoice Direct Care and policy advisor to The Heartland Institute, which co-publishes Health Care News.
“Much of the evidence supporting mask usage is based on hypothetical modeling of particle movement and the presumed infectivity of these different movement patterns,” Savage told Health Care News. “However, real-world studies comparing the masked and the unmasked show little to no benefit of masking. This suggests that masks may work in theory, but not in reality.”
Bonner R. Cohen, Ph.D., (bcohen@nationalcenter.org) is a senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research.