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Masks Will Return To The U.S. House And White House After The CDC Changes Guidance [npr.org]:

Masks Will Return To The U.S. House And White House After The CDC Changes Guidance

Masks are again required for members of the House side of the U.S. Capitol amid a nationwide rise in coronavirus cases.

Under the reimplemented mandate, members, both vaccinated and unvaccinated, must wear a "well-fitted, medical grade, filtration face mask" in House office buildings, during meetings and while in the House chamber.

Under the order from Dr. Brian Monahan, Congress' attending physician, the new rule doesn't affect members of the Senate.

The return of masks in the House comes a month after the requirement was first lifted for vaccinated members.

CDC Urges Vaccinated People To Mask Up Indoors In Places With High Virus Transmission [npr.org]

An uptick in cases in the U.S. due to the highly contagious delta variant also led to the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to reverse its earlier position [npr.org] on face coverings. The agency said it recommends fully vaccinated people wear masks indoors if they live in areas with significant or high spread.

The delta variant is more than two times as transmissible as the original strain of the virus, according to experts. All of the vaccines have shown substantial protection against developing severe illness in people infected with the delta strain.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., immediately criticized efforts to mandate mask wearing again.

He tweeted [twitter.com], "Make no mistake—The threat of bringing masks back is not a decision based on science, but a decision conjured up by liberal government officials who want to continue to live in a perpetual pandemic state."

Members who fail to wear a mask are punishable by a fine or denial of entry into the chamber.

Republican Reps. Thomas Massie, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Ralph Norman were each fined $500 in May [courier-journal.com] for refusing to wear masks.

After losing their appeals to the House Ethics Committee, the trio said this week that they are suing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., over the fines, according to The Louisville Courier Journal.

White House reporters must mask up

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