Did Democrats Go Maskless at a White House Event?

It took place after the CDC released new guidance, and all congressional Democrats say they have been vaccinated.

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Viral posts from popular right-wing Instagram accounts share a video of Democratic politicians including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Attorney General Merrick Garland at a White House event without masks. 

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  1. Alex DeLarge

    In other words: "true."

    Now fact check the CDC's claim that covid was transmisible on May 12, but not May 13.

    Why is this site always shilling for Democrats if it's supposedly for conservatives?

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  2. GregS

    This, Jonah, is why Biden wears a mask when you think he doesn't need to. If he doesn't follow the guidelines of his own CDC he'll be slammed by right wing nut jobs ("it's not about the science! It's about controlling you and about using Jewish space lasers! See, he doesn't follow his own rules.").
    If he does follow the guidelines he's slammed by the good cop half of the routine (i.e. you and Geraghty).

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    Luke Thompson (not that one)

    Unless it's been changed, you left out an important part of the context, which is that Republicans have been getting fines for not wearing masks on the House floor. So while they're not required at the WH, if the Democrats really believed they were needed in the House, they'd wear them anyway.

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    1. cb76

      Further context, not all members of Congress are vaccinated, so it's not the same as this white house event, where everyone present was fully vaxxed.

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        Luke Thompson (not that one)

        If the Democrats are vaccinated, it doesn't matter if the people around them are.

        That's far safer than when they had someone who was supposed to still be quarantined come onto the floor for a vote they weren't sure they'd win.

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          Farhall

          Vaccination and health precautions aren't purely about protecting one's self against the current strain of the virus. In large part it's a race between stopping the spread of the virus versus its ability to mutate beyond the protections provided by the vaccines.

          Or, to put it another way, it doesn't help the healthy House members that they won't get infected today if Congress becomes a petri dish pitting strain after strain of the virus against the vaccined half until finally a mutation manages to break through the vaccine.

          That's the reason for the drive for vaccine. If the virus couldn't mutate, and the only cost is personal, i.e. choose not to be vaccinated and only those choosing to get sick suffer, that's one thing. But the cost isn't personal.

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            Luke Thompson (not that one)

            At this point, we're really more likely to see an entirely different disease than a breakthrough variant. There's simply no basis for the idea that the mask rule on the House floor is protecting anyone who hasn't already made a choice.

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          2. JohnO

            That's a reason people should get vaccinated. It's not a reason vaccinated people should wear masks, which is why CDC guidelines would not require masking vaccinated people on the House floor, but for political show (of course not exclusive to Pelosi or the Democrats) Pelosi is requiring them (to point to the fact that some GOP members are not vaccinated, or won't say they are). When or if the threat of mutations that can beat the vaccine at a significant rate materializes, then vaccinated people will have to go back to wearing masks. There's no evidence of that now, latest studies confirm that major vaccines are still highly effective against major new variants, such from in UK and India, article on CNBC just today.

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    Aylene Wright

    And of course if everyone *had* worn masks despite being vaccinated, there would be Internet memes circulating about how they were ignoring the CDC guidelines to virtue signal, etc. 🙄

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    Jason Gibson

    How many republicans are vaccinated?

    If they would just seal the deal then they argument to get back to regular order on in person voting would be easier to defend

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    1. GregS

      I they got vaccinated the Democrats would go back to in person, no argument required. There's probably a large contingent of Republican congresspersons who are vaccinated but won't say so publicly. This group likely matches up neatly with the cowards who are always quoted as saying "I'd have voted for election certification / impeachment/ the Jan 6th commission, but my constituents feel very strongly about it, so I was too scared to do it."

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About Alec Dent

Alec Dent is the culture editor and a staff writer for The Dispatch. He is a graduate of the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at UNC Chapel Hill, and previously oversaw The Dispatch's fact checking team.
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