Nine months into the coronavirus pandemic, 13 states have no statewide mask requirement. U.S. Sen. Edward Markey wants to change that.
The recently re-elected Massachusetts senator has teamed up with his colleague Connecticut U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal on the Encouraging Masks for All Act, which would provide financial incentives for states to tell their residents to mask up.
The legislation would provide an additional $5 billion to the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund for states that implement mask requirements. It would also make $75 million in grants available for states to use to promote mask mandates and provide face coverings to those who need them.
“We are entering the winter months with what many are calling potentially the darkest time in the pandemic,” Markey said Friday, the day after Massachusetts blew past its previous record high for daily new coronavirus cases. “The vaccine is around the corner and that gives us hope. But hope is not health — we can ensure our health by wearing a mask.”
Markey said he is “fully supportive” of President-elect Joe Biden’s plan to ask Americans to mask up for 100 days after he takes office in January.
“But we should not wait until then to arm ourselves with this protection,” Markey said. “Thirteen states across our country still do not have mask mandates in place, and that’s dangerous.”
The Centers for Disease Control on Friday urged “universal face mask use” outside of people’s homes as COVID-19 cases surge across the country.
“Research suggests that universal mask mandates could save 100,000 lives in the coming months,” Markey said. “We owe that to our health care workers and essential employees who have been on the front lines of this crisis since day one, putting their health and safety at risk to make our society run. And we owe it to our flight attendants and airline employees.”
Markey and Blumenthal have long called on the Trump administration to require masks aboard planes. Association of Flight Attendants-CWA President Sara Nelson said in a virtual press conference with the senators Friday that flight attendants have been “assaulted in confrontations” over mask wearing by those who “refuse to comply” with airline requirements not backed by a federal mandate.
“These frontline workers are already endangering themselves by working on these kinds of transportation vehicles,” Blumenthal said. “They should not be put at greater risk from the users of these kinds of vehicles who may resist wearing them.”
The senators set no expiration date for their mask mandate, “because frankly we’re going to be in this pandemic for a while,” Blumenthal said. “Obviously our hope is at some point it would not be necessary — but we’re going to listen to the science.”
___
(c)2020 the Boston Herald
Visit the Boston Herald at www.bostonherald.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
—-
This content is published through a licensing agreement with Acquire Media using its NewsEdge technology.
Did Ed lie about his military service too?
His mouth is moving.. is it not? There’s your answer. This scum would rather lie … even if the truth would serve him better. 88.6% of people testing positive wear masks… follow the science? Just another swindle… another day in cesspool swamp.
I showed someone that CDC study, and they said “THE CDC Is false news, i just saw it said so on Wikipedia”…
I’m going by the stats my sister in law who works for a county health department here in Michigan … she’s been tracking (although the entire department is directed to NOT log the findings) on her own, the mask wearing and positive testing. So far as of last week it’s 88.6%
SO IF even 80%+ percent of folk, who DO wear masks, STILL CATCH COVID, then why are the left, so adamant of MANDATING MASK requirements/??
ITS NOT about safety, but CONTROL!
just like they are so hell bent on forcing “Common sense” gun regulations, EVEN THOUGH the proof is those regulations do NOTHING TO STOP CRIMINALS DOING shootings… THey are just a means to CONTROL the rest of us.
Five billion dollars to states for mandatory masks. In the meantime, people have their businesses shut down. These people, with their businesses shut down, cannot pay their bills, they cannot pay rent / mortgage payments and they cannot afford to put food on the table. The elite politicians / politically connected, have all the money and power and then there is the rest of us. We are becoming Venezuela at warp speed and we will be eating out of the back of garbage trucks.
“The legislation would provide an additional $5 billion to the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund for states that implement mask requirements. It would also make $75 million in grants available for states to use to promote mask mandates,”
,,,,,,,preceded of course by establishment politicians that vote for it getting a heads-up as who which companies will get the contracts to produce them so they can buy stock in the company early and watch it balloon, followed by large campaign donations by the companies to the politicians, all paid for courtesy of the fleeced American Taxpayer. Meanwhile if more social unrest is needed to flood our streets with social criminals to intimidate the Conservative opposition, they will be well masked unable to be identified later.
Have we not seen this game plan before, that plays like a broken record?
How’s about he PAY THE MONEY DIRECTLY To families in need, and they can use it for food/rent/bills, AND masks..
But at least we’ll have masks while living in our cars… with $9.35 gas prices…. but never fear.. as Numbskull Nancy said…”and we feed them”. Arm up… Masks down… Keep your power dry.
YEa.. Everone wear your face diaper! OR else we’ll send you to jail.
If I get put in jail for not wearing a mask… they better never ever let me out!
Don’t worry. I can easily see the left, saying “For the good of the rest of society, all those who refuse to wear a mask, must be permanently locked up.”
Then it will shift to “IF you are conservative, you are to get locked up, for the ‘good of the nation”.
Then it will become “IF you refuse to get the shots WE Dictate, you will be locked up, for the good of the party!”
“We can ENSURE our health by wearing a mask.” A dangerous and idiotic statement from a dangerous idiot.
IF 84% of those who caught covid (VIA the CDC’s own findings)< WORE MASKS< then, how the hell is making everyone wear one, gonna do anything?
“Financial incentives” for the states — in other words we, through our taxes, will be forced to pay for our own enslavement.
Wake up and look all around you, and you two BOZOs would see that almost everyone IS wearing a mask! You two numbskulls are just looking for a way to waste our hard earned tax money. Retire from politics and give us a break for crying out loud.
Oh… He’ll argue it’s not a waste… if you follow the money this special fragment of feces is well invested in mask making… either by someone in his family owning a mask factory… or a mask factory owner invested in his re-election or both…. but it’s all to make our lives better…. They just want help us… you know …give back because he loves the country and the Constitution…don’t you?… you must be a racist.
IT wouldn’t shock me, to see all these mayors, doctors etc, who keep pushing these mask mandates, OWN shares in mask making companies..
Masks can slightly reduce the chance of getting infected, but can also increase the chance of getting infected if you don’t wear and handle them properly, or if they are so thick as to reduce your oxygen level through the day, hampering your immune system. Since there is too much uncertainty involved, the talk of spending billions on them is nonsense.