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Talk about flipping the script. For better or worse, Joe Biden and his team made Coronavirus the defining standard of his campaign and a hot topic in his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention, James Freeman reports in the WSJ.
Compliance was certainly an issue on Thursday night. Perhaps Mr. Biden will now consider the science, with all its nuances, before backing another aggressive assertion of federal power to try to force Americans to follow a rule that he can’t seem to live by.
Biden’s Universal Mask Mandate – Spreading Socialism
Without any consideration for common sense filling in for varying circumstances (hiking in the woods vs. entering a busy business establishment), Mr. Biden presented his Marxist-leaning, one-size-fits-all proposal:
Every single American should be wearing a mask when they’re outside for the next three months at a minimum. … Every governor should mandate mandatory mask wearing. The estimates by the experts are that it will save over 40,000 lives in the next three months. Forty thousand lives, if people act responsibly.
We’ll have a national mandate to wear a mask — not as a burden, but to protect each other. It’s a patriotic duty. In short, I will do what we should have done from the very beginning.
It’s not about your rights. It’s about your responsibilities as an American,” said Biden, flipping the script on Republicans who argue that mandates infringe on an individual’s right not to wear one.
OK for Biden to Unmask
The former vice president then concluded his remarks, donned a mask, and went outside to greet supporters and enjoy a fireworks show, continues Mr. Freeman.
But like so many of us, (Biden) quickly grew tired of the mask and took a breather, with the equipment tucked comfortably under his chin as he celebrated his nomination with fellow Democrats.
Where Are the Randomized Trials?
As the WSJ’s Allysia Finley recently noted, the science surrounding masks is not so simple:
The only way to ascertain the efficacy of facemasks in the real world is to do randomized trials. So far there have been only a dozen examining the efficacy of masks in preventing respiratory illnesses, and conclusions have been difficult to draw because of poor compliance by study participants.
None of the six trials published over the past decade found that masks alone had a significant effect on the spread of the flu or similar illnesses in health-care workers or the general population.
Is a Vote for Biden a Vote for Kamala?
Meanwhile, as of this writing, Joe Biden, 77, still has not been tested for COVID-19, reports Stephan Miller in Spectator.US.
Despite protocols from his campaign, Biden is a public figure who travels and is exposed to public environments. Biden could also be rendered incapacitated for a period of time, or worse, should he contract the virus. That would lead to further questions about his running mate Kamala Harris’s readiness should she need to step in, temporarily, or permanently. Harris herself has also not answered if she has taken a COVID test or is being tested regularly as the vice presidential candidate.
