The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently announced that from 23:59 on February 1, all passengers and related staff using public transportation systems across the United States must wear masks, and violators may face punishment.
This is considered to be one of the elements of the Biden administration’s “100-day New Deal”.
After Biden took office, he signed a number of executive orders requiring people to wear masks and social distances in federal government buildings, urging local governments at all levels to take the same measures, and calling on the American people to insist on wearing masks for 100 days.
However, the media and public opinion believe that the politicization of public health and scientific issues in the United States continues, and the Biden administration faces challenges in the road to the prevention and control of the novel coronavirus epidemic.
It is difficult to implement.
According to NPR, Taylor Garland, spokesman of the American Flight Attendant Association (AFA), said recently that some passengers did not think it necessary to wear masks. The U.S. Department of Transportation has received more than 150 safety complaints from passengers violating the airline’s mask policy, and the airline has banned thousands of passengers who refuse to wear masks from their flights.
Garland said that federal support is essential to ensure that passengers strictly abide by the mask order.
The state governments disagree.
The mask policy has also been blocked in the implementation of the states.
According to the statistics of the National Mask Network, as of February 1 local time, 14 states in the United States did not have state-wide “mask injunctions”.
The Wisconsin state legislature plans to vote this week to try to overturn the state’s “mask injunction”.
Indiana also has a large number of lawmakers, expressing opposition to the “mask extension order” announced by the state recently and questioning the effectiveness of masks. Florida and Georgia have even banned subordinate cities and counties from imposing “mask injunctions”.
It is difficult for schools to implement.
Last year, the Trump administration forced the resumption of offline teaching, making American campuses the hardest hit by the epidemic.
As of January 28, more than 2.81 million children in the United States had been diagnosed with COVID-19, accounting for 12.8% of the total number of cases in the United States, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) data; as of January 28, 3,742 confirmed cases per 100,000 children.
A study of two independent schools in the United States pointed out that if appropriate precautions were taken, children would not spread the virus in schools. Researchers found that 72% of school transmission cases in one of the schools were linked to non-compliance with the school’s mask policy.
However, some areas are still arguing about whether students should wear masks.
In Florida, Indian River County held a hearing last weekend: Some parents accused school districts of denying “parents the right to decide what is best for their children”, and so they asked the court to order the cancellation of the school district mask order, according to the Pearl Coast newspaper.
Some people are unwilling to wear masks.
Although masks are only a piece of cloth, some Americans feel that wearing masks deprives them of their personal freedom.
A store security guard in Michigan was shot dead in May 2020 for reminding customers to wear masks.
In January 2021, a group of anti-mask people made a scene in a shopping mall in Los Angeles, USA. Protesters held signs that “COVID-19 is a hoax” and physically clashed with mall customers and staff.
The politicization of the epidemic prevention measure of wearing masks indicates that political polarization in the United States is still widespread, and simple public health policies are interpreted as political symbols.
In his speech, Fauci said that everyone should wear masks in public. “This should not be a political issue, it is purely a public health issue.”
