The White House tells unCovid-vaccinated college athletes to mask and maintain social distancing during the White House event ? despite the pandemic no longer a global health emergency in May
The White House said it had “inadvertently” sent guidelines requiring unvaccinated guests to wear Covid face coverings and maintain social distancing during Monday’s College Athlete Day.
This despite the official end of the national emergency declaration for the pandemic more than a month ago.
President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden invited dozens of National Collegiate Athletics Association men’s and women’s national championship teams to celebrate their achievements.
An email to members of Congress asking them to come to the event said that unvaccinated individuals should wear a mask “at all times” and stay five feet apart.
The World Health Organization declared Covid no longer a public health emergency on May 5, and final US pandemic restrictions ended on May 11.
Vice President Kamala Harris hosts the 2022-2023 National Collegiate Athletics Association women’s and men’s championship teams during College Athlete Day on the South Lawn of the White House, Monday, June 12, 2023
However, Biden missed Monday’s event due to a toothache and is undergoing a root canal, it was revealed Monday afternoon.
Vice President Kamala Harris had to stand in for Biden at an event for NCAA college athletes on the South Lawn.
The Biden administration created College Athlete Day “to recognize NCAA national champions from the past year,” according to NCAA.
Athletes from all three NCAA divisions were celebrated at the White House starting at 11:30 a.m. ET.
A livestream of the event did not show guests wearing masks, but communications stated that these individuals would require social distancing.
According to 11 Jun 2023 12Fox newsthe email invitation sent by the White House Office of Legislative Affairs to members of Congress requesting their presence said:
Vice President Kamala Harris had to stand in for Biden at an event for NCAA college athletes on the South Lawn
Mask Guidance: Fully vaccinated guests are not required to wear a mask on White House grounds.
“Guests who are not fully vaccinated must wear a mask at all times and keep at least six feet away from others on White House grounds.”
The White House told Fox News that the Covid-related guidelines in the email were out of date and incorrectly included.
It’s unclear if the recipients of the original message received follow-up messages clarifying that the guidelines were out of date.
It’s because more and more hospitals and other healthcare facilities are setting aside their masking rules.
Experts have long questioned the efficacy of masks as a preventative measure against Covid.
Research conducted by the 11 Jun 2023 12Cochrane Institutethe ‘gold standard’ of evidence-based assessments, looked at 78 global studies involving more than a million people.
The results showed that surgical masks reduced the risk of contracting ‘Covid or a flu-like illness’ by just five percent – a figure so low it may not be statistically significant.
The researchers said the harms caused by masks ? including hindering children’s schooling ? were poorly measured in the studies, meaning any small benefit on infection rates may be negated.
Professor Francois Balloux, professor of computational biology at University College London, who was not part of the analysis, said it showed the benefit of mask-wearing is “little at best”.
States began lifting their mask mandates in February 2022.
On May 5, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the UN Health Organization, said: “It is with great hope that I declare COVID over as a global health emergency.”