A Sunday night memo from the U.S. Congress' attending physician Dr. Brian Monahan announced that mask mandates have been lifted ahead of President Joe Biden's State of the Union address on March 1.
The memo said that mask wearing "is now an individual choice option," which reduces tensions between Democratic and Republican lawmakers, who have grown increasingly opposed to wearing face coverings as COVID cases have dramatically decreased across the U.S.
CBS News reported that the Congress' sergeant at arms previously said in a memo dated February 17 that attendees "must continuously wear an issued, FDA-authorized, KN95 or N95 mask that completely covers the nose and mouth." Those who failed to comply with the mask mandate would be removed from the State of the Union address or fined.
Now, the lifting of the mask mandate ahead of President Biden's State of the Union address comes amidst dispute over the guidelines that members of the House of Representatives have to follow with regards to wearing face masks in the House Chamber, where they debate and vote.
The Congress mask mandate was first implemented by Speaker Nancy Pelosi back in July 2020 and has sparked outrage from right-leaning leaders, several monetary fines for lawmakers, and even a federal lawsuit.
The report revealed that a violation of the House's mask mandate comes with a steep fine of $500 for the first offense and $2,500 for subsequent offenses, amounts that would be deducted from offending lawmakers' salaries.
Many lawmakers complied with the Congress' mask mandate, but Republican Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Andrew Clyde of Georgia have famously violated the mask mandates, resulting to up to at least $95,000 and $63,000 in penalties, respectively.
Before the masking guidance was released, Republican Representative Andy Harris of Maryland, a physician who formerly co-chaired the GOP doctors caucus suggested that masking should be up to those who were concerned about catching COVID. He argued, "We should be leading the storyline that in fact, it's safe to come out. It's safe to resume our normal lives."
Harris said it was "regressive" to have a State of the Union address in which everyone was wearing masks. He suggested instead, "We should be moving to the point where if you're at high risk, you wear a mask. If you're not at high risk, you know you're free to move freely in society."
Meanwhile the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday issued new guidelines for Americans across the country to deal with the tail-end of the pandemic, the New York Times reported. CDC's new guidelines suggest that more than half or 70% of the U.S.' counties are now at low or medium risk for COVID, meaning people are no longer required to wear masks. Moreover, the new recommendations apply to everyone, regardless of vaccination status.
The CDC also established three new measures to assess COVID transmission risk, namely new COVID-related hospital admissions in over the previous week, percentage of hospital beds occupied by COVID patients, and the number of new COVID cases per 100,000 people over the previous week.
