Republicans could use the Biden administration’s recent shift back to recommending masks in some indoor settings as an opportunity to paint their party’s coronavirus messaging as more firmly rooted in science than the Democrats’.
“The mixed messages that come out of this place are driving America crazy,” Rep. Drew Ferguson, a Georgia Democrat, told the Washington Examiner. “I think we stay 100% with the science.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidance this week urging people to wear masks in certain indoor settings, regardless of their vaccination status, due to the spread of the delta variant. The move came two months after the CDC abruptly removed mask recommendations for vaccinated people, citing the efficacy of the shots and falling case numbers.
HOUSE REPUBLICANS RAGE AND DISOBEY RETURN OF MASK MANDATE: ‘ABSOLUTELY ABSURD’
But the CDC has provided little in the way of data to support its latest reversal on masking, and critics have questioned whether the guidelines will undermine efforts to persuade the vaccine-hesitant to take the shot.
Ferguson recounted the flimsy evidence provided this week to lawmakers by the House doctor, who was attempting to explain the new mask rules in place in the lower chamber.
“We were in a meeting yesterday with the attending physician of the House, and he told us — and I found this to be almost incredulous — he told us that he based his decision to make a recommendation for masks in the House of Representatives on the CDC’s information,” Ferguson said. “Well, the Centers for Disease Control — and this is according to the attending physician of the House — based that information on unpublished data from a study in India that was rejected in a peer-reviewed journal, and it involved a vaccine that’s not even allowed in the United States of America.”
“So, the hysteria over COVID right now, our government, the CDC, at a time when Americans need to be able to trust this, is making decisions on unpublished data from a study in India,” he added. “How does that make sense?”
In a footnote of its new guidelines, the CDC cited a study from India that has not yet been peer-reviewed and was based on examinations of breakthrough infections among healthcare workers who were vaccinated with shots that are not approved for use in the U.S.
The CDC has shared little else in the way of data to support its assertion that masking is needed once again because vaccinated people can spread the virus. Most studies have shown the three vaccines administered in the U.S. to be effective in protecting against serious cases of COVID caused by the delta variant.
The lack of evidence has led some experts to question the basis for the Biden administration’s move.
Some House Republicans slammed the shift in messaging on masks and vaccines, arguing the CDC has now sent conflicting signals on whether vaccines actually offer protection from the virus.
Pushing back on burdensome public health mandates was one of four top issues Ferguson cited as areas of focus Republicans should adopt heading into the midterm elections, when the GOP hopes to erase Democrats’ narrow advantages in the House and Senate.
Ferguson, the chief deputy whip for House Republicans, also pointed to the economy and the opposition to defunding the police and critical race theory as broad themes that GOP candidates should focus on heading into 2022.
“Americans want to get up every day and go to a job that they love. That’s something that they feel productive in. They want to come home to a decent, safe place to live. They want a say in their kids’ education, and they want the freedom to be who they want to be in this great country,” Ferguson said of the GOP’s overall message.
The Georgia Republican also argued his party is “as unified now as it’s ever been” despite the considerable media attention paid to the decision of two GOP members to defy House leadership by accepting positions on a select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riots.
Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger have drawn the ire of colleagues by joining the committee after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy pulled Republicans off the panel over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s refusal to seat two of his chosen members.
The House Freedom Caucus demanded Thursday that Cheney and Kinzinger be expelled from the Republican conference.
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But Ferguson suggested the two members are “outliers” in a party that has otherwise come together over shared priorities.
“It does not matter which party you’re in or which moment in time you look at — there’s always going to be some outliers on the edges of the party,” he said.
“I know every single day, the vast majority of the Republicans in the House of Representatives get up, and they think about putting this country first,” he added. “So, to characterize our House GOP right now as divided, I think it’s a complete misrepresentation.”
