Will President Harris/Biden still force a mask mandate now that a 90% effective Covid vaccine is here?

[DXBtoFL]

Originally Posted by middle-aged mom

No POTUS has the authority to impose let alone enforce a mask mandate.

That authority lies with governors or local leaders.

I agree. Some people really don't understand the limits of the powers of the presidency or what Congress can do vis a vis the states. We do have this pesky thing called the Constitution and it does not say the president can behave like a dictator, issuing any laws he wants and having it immediately complied with.

The particular irony is that one of the most common charges levied against Trump by the partisan Democrats was that he behaved like a fascist and was a threat to American democracy, but if anything, Trump followed the Constitutional division of powers and left the COVID responses largely to the individual states, for it is they, not the national government, who has the power to enact the COVID policies that did require suspension of various civil liberties. Demanding the president to enact national mask policies would be behaving like a fascist dictator as it is not a power the presidency has and would require usurping the powers of the states..... and if Trump was genuinely interested in behaving like a fascist dictator, the outbreak of the COVID pandemic was a perfect example to use it as the means by which to try to seize political power, but he chose not to, and was, ironically, severely attacked and criticized by the Democratic opposition. It's certainly one of the many examples of the hypocrisies surrounding the partisan Democrats and how politicized COVID has become in the US.

As it is, Biden's ability to "do something" is also severely restricted and any national mandate would also not only be extremely unpopular among literally half the country, but subject to many legal battles. I suspect by the time he takes office, and if this vaccine really does show promise, he will not wade into this particular battle because it would be sacrificing so much of his already limited political capital just for a few months of mask wearing, while permanently destroying any chances of reaching out and "unity" with the half the country that didn't vote for him. In short, the Biden COVID approach will end up being mostly hot air and minimal action till the vaccine is ready for widespread implementation, which will happen largely via the private healthcare sector on an ad-hoc, as needed basis.

[bradnsota]

Originally Posted by STL74

Until there is widespread distribution and acceptance of the vaccine, we will still need to mitigate the spread of the virus by other means. Biden will work with the experts regarding what is best to do with whatever the current situation is. If it’s still spreading wildly in January and the vaccine is still in limited rotation, I’m sure he will recommend what the experts believe is best to save more lives. Unfortunately I imagine red states will continue to ignore the recommendations. Would you prefer we just keep dying and filling up hospitals until say...July so you don’t have to wear a piece of cloth and make some basic lifestyle adjustments?

Red states? I thought there were no such thing as Red States and Blue States? I thought it was all states?

Look at all those Democrats gathering together in mass to celebrate the election results, most without masks in most of the videos. I guess those are Red State Democrats. Just like all the Red State Democrat "peace protestors" breaking Covid rules earlier on, causing this massive spread.

[nachofries]

They can push a mask mandate all they want but I will be wearing my stealth mesh mask when absolutely necessary so suck it.

P.S I’ve been anti mask long before covid was a thing so don’t anyone dare play the political mask shaming game with me.