© Provided by Washington Examiner It's a tough call as to which time President Joe Biden looked more foolish in a mask.
Was it the picture of Biden alone in the middle of Arlington National Cemetery, vaccinated, outdoors, and physically distanced to the extent that nobody else appeared in the intentionally crafted shots showing hundreds of gravestones?
Or was it the Zoom meeting? On a video call to discuss climate change, Biden's masked face appeared alongside the faces of his interlocutors - other world leaders who were all quite sensibly unmasked. Biden was sitting at a very large table in a very large room with John Kerry, Janet Yellen, and about two others, all of whom were almost certainly vaccinated, like the president.
We acknowledge that no studies have proven that the vaccinated cannot spread COVID-19 to the deceased through 6 feet of soil, or that droplets cannot pass through Zoom. But unlike Biden COVID adviser Anthony Fauci, we do not assume that anything bad is likely until it is proven impossible.
Joe Biden simply doesn't need to wear a mask. And he shouldn't.
The reason to wear a mask amid this pandemic is to catch the potentially infected droplets coming out of your mouth. People can spread the coronavirus even before they have symptoms, or when they don't realize their symptoms are COVID symptoms. Those people's exhalations include droplets that include the coronavirus. If an infected person wears a mask, he is far less likely to infect others.
Biden is extremely unlikely to have the coronavirus because the vaccine he received is extremely effective at preventing infection, and even more effective at preventing symptomatic infection. It is thus even more effective at keeping Biden from ever possibly spreading the virus to anyone.
On top of this near-certainty that Biden will never emit a potent coronavirus is another layer of safety: White House staff, the Secret Service, and the military around him are probably all or nearly all fully vaccinated.
When Biden is Zooming or outdoors, it's painfully obvious that his mask is pointless - so much so that it is clownish for him to wear one.
Even indoors with his staff, though, Biden's masking is superfluous. When he masks up for the cameras, we understand that he is probably signaling. He is trying to set a good example by wearing a mask. This would have made sense six months ago, but it doesn't make sense today.
The best argument for a vaccinated person to wear a mask today is to make life easier for any poor souls, such as bartenders or school principals, tasked with enforcing mask mandates on the broader population, and who may not know who is vaccinated or not.
Biden, though, is the president of the United States. Everyone knows he is vaccinated.
Rather than signal the virtues of mask-wearing, the president should signal the benefits of being fully vaccinated: namely, dropping all the annoying mandates and restrictions aimed at curbing the coronavirus.
In most of the country, we've reached the point at which vaccine doses are in search of willing arms. Showing the hesitant that vaccination has benefits would help the cause of ending this pandemic. Biden could be the image of a post-pandemic America, if he were willing to show his face.
Tags: Editorials, Joe Biden, Arlington National Cemetery, Face masks, Coronavirus, Vaccination
Original Author: Washington Examiner
Original Location: Ditch the mask, Mr. President