THE DETROIT NEWS: NEW RULE! Blue State Governors Play Political Calvinball
Blue-state Governors suited up last week to play another egregious game of political Calvinball — you know, the game Bill Waterson’s beloved cartoon characters Calvin and Hobbes play in the backyard where they make up the rules as they go along. “The only permanent rule,” says Calvin, “is you can never play the same way twice!” The game is cute coming from Calvin, but from our political betters? Not so much.
In an effort to flip the script on COVID-19, these governors announced they’d be rolling back mask mandates in their respective states.
Here’s how I imagine it:
"NEW RULE, NEW RULE!” yells Newsom as he plows through Lamont and Brown on his way to the goal line. “Mask mandates are lifted in most of California, but NOT Los Angeles!”
“Wait, me too! NEW RULE!” screams Hochul from the back, grabbing Murphy by the jersey, “No masks inside for adult New Yorkers, only for the kids!”
“New rule…” whimpers Murphy, throwing a desperate elbow, knowing he’s come in last, “no masks for the kids! And if you don’t touch the 30-yard base wicket with the flag, you have to hop on one foot!”
“Uh, wait,” says Whitmer from the end zone, “were we still playing?”
To blue-state residents who are mere spectators as political elites play keep-away with their normalcy and freedom, Hobbes the stuffed tiger’s words are especially prescient. “No sport is less organized than Calvinball!”
So, why the sudden shift?
“Circumstances have changed” said Dr. Leana Wen during a Monday appearance on Anderson Cooper 360, echoing Democratic governors in what some have called a 180-degree policy reversal. (As recently as December 20th, Wen advised the public to wear triple-ply masks while outdoors, regardless of age or developmental cost.)
“Case counts are declining,” she said, and then, adding her own new rule, “the science has changed.”
However, a bi-partisan chorus of critics disagree, citing early doubts about the efficacy of universal masking. “We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection,” wrote a diverse team of doctors for the New England Journal of Medicine in May 2020. “In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic.”
“The available clinical evidence of face mask efficacy is of low quality and the best available clinical evidence has mostly failed to show efficacy,” added officials at the CATO Institute in November 2021.
Until April of 2020, the World Health Organization COVID-19 guidelines stated that cloth masks were “not recommended under any circumstance,” and updated in June 2020 to state that the use of masks by healthy people was not supported by “high quality or direct scientific evidence.”
Now, on the other side of the Omicron spike, there is overwhelming evidence to support these early claims. Many states with mask mandates had equal or higher rates of transmission and death than those that did not. As far as case counts and deaths - they are still higher than ever.
Studies used by the Centers for Disease Control to push universal masking in schools across the country have been largely debunked, having not controlled for vaccination rates and other mitigation measures. These studies also fail to account for harm done by masking to student’s mental health and development, or the 0.002% COVID fatality rate among children, which is dwarfed by common illnesses like seasonal influenza.
Though the data didn’t change, the polls did.
Faith in the president and federal health agencies have taken a nosedive, with Biden’s approval falling to new lows. Real Clear Politics found that a mere 39% of Americans approve of Biden’s performance, while 52% strongly disapprove. His approval rating sits even lower than that of his predecessor, Donald Trump.
A Kaiser Family foundation survey found nearly 70% of respondents were “tired of” or “frustrated by” the state of the pandemic, feelings which were aggravated by recent hypocritical photo-ops: an unmasked Gavin Newsom and Eric Garcetti next to famously immunocompromised basketball player Magic Johnson, and an unmasked Stacey Abrams smiling in a sea of masked kids.
As of late January, Democrats had lost 14 polling points in just one year, the largest shift in Gallup's 30-year history. The implications for the Democratic party in the upcoming November midterms are devastating.
The conclusion? COVID panic is no longer politically expedient, so the rules must change—not for those booing in the stands, but because of them. Though it may feel like freedom is finally winning, be wary. As Biden said himself, “this is not about freedom or personal choice.”
He’s right. This isn’t about freedom, or personal choice, or science, for that matter. This is Calvinball.
Bydalek is a writer, performer and administrator living in New York City. She is a proud graduate of the University of Michigan.
Originally published in the Detroit News, February 25th, 2022.
Image: Bill Waterson, Calvin and Hobbes