As I have mentioned before, various left-wing grifters (or perhaps right-wing agents provocateurs) deluge me with a dozen or so e-mails a day peddling progressive hysteria. Here is one that landed this morning. I reproduce it in its full amateur-layout glory:
The guys behind the “Progressive Turnout Project”, whoever they may be, evidently think that their target audience is gullible enough to believe that 50,000 SIGNATURES BY MIDNIGHT will reverse a federal court order that the Biden Administration itself hasn’t sought to stay pending appeal. It’s not even clear that an appeal will be filed. It is clear that, outside of certain twitterati bubbles, the demise of mandatory mask-wearing on airplanes, trains, buses and ride shares has been greeted with enthusiasm. A new City Journal article explains why that reaction is exactly right.
It’s a difficult addiction to overcome, according to the Japanese therapists who specialize in treating it – but a simple remedy might help some maskaholics. It’s a graph that should be required viewing for everyone still wearing a mask and every public official or journalist who still insists that mask mandates “control the spread.”
The graph tracks the results of a natural experiment that occurred nationwide during the pandemic. Eleven states never mandated masks, while the other 39 states enforced mandates. The mandates typically began early in the pandemic in 2020 and remained until at least the summer of 2021, with some extending into 2022. The black line on the graph shows the weekly rate of Covid cases in all the states with mask mandates that week, while the orange line shows the rate in all the states without mandates.
The picture needs no embellishing words.
That masks, especially the porous cloth coverings that most wearers adopt, are useless against airborne viruses was a fact well-established before the Covid-19 outbreak. Anthony Fauxi’s early exhortations against masking weren’t, as he later claimed, a “noble lie” but simply a science-based recommendation that he later repudiated for patently political reasons.
The madness is nearing its end, even if the madmen aren’t yet entirely departed.
Update (4:10 p.m.): Contrary to my optimistic skepticism, the government has announced that it will file a notice of appeal. The Justice Department’s twitter statement and the Wall Street Journal’s report make no mention of a motion to stay the district court’s order. Travelers remain free for at least a little while longer.
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