The coronavirus pandemic has gone on more than two years, and the emotional fights over masking have spilled over into many memorable media moments.
From « Saturday Night Live » …
The coronavirus pandemic has gone on more than two years, and the emotional fights over masking have spilled over into many memorable media moments. From « Saturday Night Live » to « The View » to an MSNBC camera crew, here are 10 memorable media moments involving the fierce face-covering debate. As part of what one watchdog called a « meltdown » in liberal media, « The View » co-host Sunny Hostin seeemed to suggest Thursday that she would have hit Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, R., if he had spoken to one of her children the way he addressed teens at a University of South Florida event this week. « You do not have to wear those masks, » DeSantis told masked high school students Wednesday as he walked up to a podium at the University of South Florida. « Please take them off. Honestly, it’s not doing anything. We’ve gotta stop with this COVID theater. So if you want to wear it, fine, but this is ridiculous. » DeSantis’ brusque tone raised media hackles, and Hostin said she might have done something that was not « legal » if she had been present. « He gave them bad public health information, » she said. « If that were my kid there, I don’t know what I would do… I don’t know if it would be legal. It’s just so inappropriate to see that from a leader. I would go nuts. » A skit on the NBC comedy show last week showed three sets of couples nervously admitting out loud that perhaps the rhetoric over shifting science, dining regulations, and arbitrary mask rules was nonsense all along. After one character brings up an article that potentially mask mandates had no effect on the virus, the eaters become anxious and start to question conventional wisdom on vaccinations and masks. « Look, I went to a child’s birthday party, self-careful, » says a woman played by Kate McKinnon, « and they did gymnastics in masks… and then they went into another room and took off their masks to eat pizza — this is the end of me — so did they really need the mask or no? DID ANY OF US EVER NEED THE MASK? » A similar skit in 2018 mocked liberal anxieties over discussing the possible pitfalls of the #MeToo movement. A defiant Mehdi Hasan defended a tweet last month calling for keeping mask mandates in schools and expanding the Supreme Court, and cited a survey that showed a majority of Americans still wanted indoor mask mandates. « The majority of Americans wear masks and want mandates, and anyone who tells you otherwise, Republican or Democrat, is gaslighting you, » he said. Less than a month later, President Biden could be seen without a mask, laughing and shaking hands with maskless Democrats after his State of the Union address.
