Abby Zimet: What would Jesus do? (Not this)

Leading as ever by invaluable example, Mike Pence declined to wear a mask Tuesday as he toured Minnesota’s renowned Mayo Clinic. He did this though the CDC’s guidelines urge Americans to wear a mask in public to minimize the spread of COVID-19, and in accordance with those guidelines the Clinic has a policy that all patients and visitors must wear masks, and the VP was told of the policy according to a tweet the Clinic posted and then deleted – leading some critics to argue maybe it’s time for them to grow a backbone – and Pence was surrounded by up to 10 doctors, workers and patients who all wore masks and/or protective equipment, and whom he may have endangered by his ignorance, arrogance, stupidity, belief in sweet Jesus or boot-licking devotion to his idiot, lying, real-men-don’t-wear-masks mob boss. 

Pence also attended a press conference with health care experts where he was again the only person not wearing protection. He later defended his actions by saying he gets regularly tested – he’s evidently never heard of false negatives or changes in results – and he wanted to speak to healthcare workers and “look them in the eye.” This obviously makes no sense – even the Lone Ranger managed it – but still we’re reassured by Pence’s clarity on the pandemic. Also by Trump’s surreal remark that “so much unnecessary death in this country…could have been stopped,” but “somebody a long time ago, it seems, decided not to do it that way.” Huh. We now have over a million cases, and more than 58,000 deaths. Way to go leadershipping, guys.

One of these things is not like the other

First published in CommonDreams.