(The Center Square) – U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance wants to stop a federal mask mandate in response to COVID-19 before it starts.
Vance announced Tuesday morning he planned to introduce legislation later in the day that would stop any federal official, including the president, from implementing a mask mandate through the end of 2024.
“We tried mask mandates once in this country. They failed to control the spread of respiratory viruses, violated basic bodily freedom, and set our fellow citizens against one another,” Vance said. “This legislation will ensure that no federal bureaucracy, no commercial airline, and no public school can impose the misguided policies of the past. Democrats say they’re not going to bring back mask mandates – we’re going to hold them to their word.”
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID-19 hospitalizations rose 19% last week and have increased for the past six weeks. The levels are not close to the pandemic’s worst of times.
Vance’s Freedom to Breathe Act would stop mandates for domestic air travel, public transit systems or primary and secondary schools, along with colleges and universities.
It would also stop airlines, transit authorities and educational institutions from refusing to serve anyone not wearing a mask.
In mid-August, Morris Brown College in Atlanta implemented a two-week mask mandate after reports of positive COVID-19 tests among students that ended last week.
The CDC’s current COVID-19 guidelines remain unchanged, including vaccines, staying home if sick, and washing hands. The guidelines say mask-wearing is a matter of personal choice.
In Ohio, 17% of people are up-to-date on COVID-19 vaccines, according to the CDC.
Ohio lifted its statewide mask mandate in June 2021, nearly a year after Gov. Mike DeWine issued it.
