Florida Republican Representative Mike Waltz said that the insistence of the Biden Administration and Democrats on reimposing mask guidelines is undermining the effort to get more Americans vaccinated.
Rep. Waltz represents Florida’s 6th congressional district, located northeast of Orlando.
Waltz explained that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s reversal on mask-wearing recommendations “is actually going to disincentivize people from getting the vaccine. If you say the vaccines work, then they work, and people are trusting that they work. So why are we wearing masks again?”
Waltz said the CDC and Biden administration’s guidance from two months ago contradicts the most recent guidelines. At that time, the administration assured that receiving a COVID-19 vaccine was the key to eliminating mask requirements.
With the newly-released guidelines, Waltz says he remains stupefied by the frequent flip-flopping.
“There is no science behind this,” said Waltz. “This is, you know, the Democrats are the party of following the science.
“And you have the president’s spokeswoman sputtering and stuttering, trying to point to any kind of science behind why, in just two months, they’ve gone from ‘Vaccines work, get your vaccine, and you can go back to normal, you don’t have to wear a mask’ [to] two months later, ‘Oh now you have to.’”
Increasing public doubt
Rep. Waltz insists that the constant changes and reversals in policy will increase public doubt about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines, which are currently only approved for emergency use.
“This is going to go right back down the slippery slope. You already have the president of the teachers union saying, ‘Well, I don’t know if we can reopen schools in the fall.’ You already have clampdowns in the transportation sector. You already have municipalities going back to lockdowns,” said Waltz.
For his part, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an emergency executive order making face masks optional in schools across the state, leaving the decision to parents and “protecting the rights of parents.”
The order, which DeSantis made effective immediately, directs the Florida Department of Health and the Florida Department of Education to allow parents to make mask-wearing decisions for their students.
Representative Waltz is grateful for DeSantis’ actions, “Well, thank God, [where] I live, we have our great governor in the free state of Florida, where it’s not going to happen there.
“Our kids have been back in school since last August, five days a week, in person, learning and thriving. But this is just, it’s beyond…Capitol Hill is frustrating. D.C. is a swamp, but this one wants to make your head explode.”
