With Capitol Hill — like much of the United States — experiencing a major spike in Covid-19 cases, members of Congress and their offices are reportedly set to receive KN95 masks to help stem the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant.
The public, meanwhile, has largely been left to fend for itself as much of Congress and the Biden administration ignore calls for action to ensure widespread distribution of high-quality masks.
According to an email sent to House staffers last week and obtained by the Washington Post, “The Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) has updated its PPE monthly allotment program to include KN95 masks for all House offices” as experts warn that widely used cloth masks are less effective at preventing Omicron transmission.
“The Office of Attending Physician (OAP) supports CDC guidelines recommending the use of a face cover such as the KN95 mask when in public spaces, particularly when a six-foot separation cannot be maintained between two individuals,” reads the email, which was sent after the U.S. Capitol’s attending physician raised alarm over an “unprecedented” surge in coronavirus infections.
Under the new allotment program, each House office in Washington, D.C. will get 40 KN95 masks per month.
“This is so grotesque,” said Yale epidemiologist Gregg Gonsalves. “Members of Congress (and White House staff) have full access to good masks (and I bet tests too!). The little people — meaning the rest of us — are on our own.”
Abraar Karan, a physician and infectious disease expert at Stanford University, noted in response to the new House safety protocol that “there are unprecedented infections around the entire country!”
“What about the general public?” he asked.
A bit of Friday night news: Congress will start providing KN95 masks to House staff and lawmakers, per email obtained by The Post.
Congress’ top doctor warned this week of “unprecedented” infections at Capitol.
House returns from recess on Monday. pic.twitter.com/qUX9596Eyo
— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) January 8, 2022
The U.S. is currently averaging roughly 700,000 new coronavirus cases per day as the Omicron variant continues to rip through the population, pushing up hospitalizations and straining overburdened healthcare systems.
Capitol physician Brian Monahan wrote in a letter to lawmakers that, in order to combat the latest coronavirus wave, high-quality face coverings are “a critical necessity unless the individual is alone in a closed office space or eating or drinking in a food service area.”
Monahan noted that based on a limited sample of positive tests on Capitol Hill, 61% of the cases were the Omicron variant.
Last month, as Omicron was detected in state after state across the U.S., Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) urged Congress to guarantee the mass production and distribution of N95 masks to all households.
In July of 2020, Sanders introduced legislation that would have required the federal government to manufacture and deliver high-quality masks to every person in the country — but the bill has gone nowhere.
The Biden administration is in the process of enacting a plan to distribute free at-home coronavirus tests to U.S. households that request them, but it has yet to take similar action on masks. In the absence of federal leadership, some local governments have begun handing out free masks to residents.
“With this variant, it’s really good to have an upgraded mask,” Nick Tomaro of the Milwaukee Health Department said as the city launched its mask distribution effort. “This is the opportunity to get it.”
While N95 shortages are not currently as acute as they were in the early stages of the pandemic, genuine masks can often be difficult to find, particularly in an online marketplace still awash in counterfeits.
“Not all face masks are created equal,” Sanders, the chair of the Senate Budget Committee, tweeted Sunday. “N95 face masks are far more effective than cloth masks in preventing the spread of Covid. We must utilize the Defense Production Act to mass produce these masks and distribute them to every household in the country.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy