Those that refuse will be escorted out by the Sargeant at Arms.

Courtesy of WaPo:

Masks have become the norm inside the House of Representatives, where some politicians now embrace the novel coronavirus precaution with colorful odes to their home districts. But there are holdouts: A small group of Republican representatives who have consistently declined to wear face coverings in Congress.

Now, as nine states hit record highs for infections, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is tightening the rules. Late Tuesday, she asked committee chairs to require masks at all hearings — and authorized the sergeant at arms to bar anyone who refuses to cover their face, according to a senior aide familiar with the request.

“This requirement will be enforced by the Sergeant at Arms and non-compliant Members will be denied entry,” the senior aide said in an email to The Washington Post. “Ultimately, Chairs will have the option of not recognizing Members in committee proceedings that fail to comply with the mask requirement.”

The change could set off new political tensions around face coverings, which have become politicized as President Trump consistently declines to wear masks in public and mocks his political opponents for doing so. In the Illinois House last month, a GOP representative was thrown out for refusing to mask up — a preview of what could happen if prominent holdouts like Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) push the envelope in hearings this week.

Tuesday’s change comes after Pelosi requested new official guidelines from Brian P. Monahan, the attending physician of Congress, based on the emerging scientific consensus that masks are key to slowing the spread of coronavirus. Monahan’s updated guidance, which he issued Tuesday, now requires face masks in the House for anyone meeting “in a limited enclosed space, such as a committee hearing room, for greater than 15 minutes.”

We should prepare ourselves for some ridiculous grandstanding by the Republicans in Congress to draw attention to their “heroic” efforts to stand up to the Dems by not taking simple precautions to protect themselves and their fellow members of Congress.

I would not be at all surprised to see a few of GOP members filming themselves being escorted out of hearings by the Sergeant at Arms to pander to their more ignorant constituents. 

I still find it fairly amazing that these people would work so hard to expose themselves to a virus that can be incredibly deadly. 

In fact the more we learn the scarier it becomes. 

Courtesy of Fox 5:

A new report from Scripps Research finds that up to half of all people infected with COVID-19 show no symptoms, and many of them could have lung damage without realizing it.

The Scripps Research report was trying to understand how people without symptoms can spread coronavirus, but researchers made a startling discovery.

“Three studies that I’ve looked at studied asymptomatic people. Interestingly, all the people look and feel fine, but when researchers did a CT scan doing an image of their lungs, in 50 to 100% of the cases, they actually found abnormalities,” said Daniel Oran, of Scripps Research. “When they look at these CT scans, it’s hazy — looks like you’re looking through a dirty piece of glass. What that means is there’s something abnormal about the lungs.”

Oran, one of the authors of the report, analyzed data of coronavirus patients from around the world. They found that 40 to 50% of people who test positive for the virus are asymptomatic.

“We know that about half of all infections are spread before people have symptoms, so it’s important to know that distinction. The truth is, whether you’re asymptomatic or presymptomatic, when you look and feel fine you still can make others sick,” Oran said.

That lung damage leaves you quite vulnerable to other infections that you may have easily fended off before. 

And yes it can even lead to your death. 

And just in case you are certain that you are immune keep this case in mind:

“There was a case last week, a young woman in Chicago in her 20s, good health, who contracted the coronavirus in April. Unfortunately, last week she required a double lung transplant. The surgeons said they had never seen lungs that had been so damaged,” Oran said. “So this is still a very very new disease we don’t know much about it.”

All Nancy Pelosi, and the medical professionals, are trying to do is to keep people safe. 

Fighting back against that in the name of politics is simply insane.