Earlier this month, 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and running mate Sen. Kamala Harris endorsed a three-month federal mask mandate that would require Americans even outdoors to strap on a face mask or risk prosecution.
“Every single American should be wearing a mask when they’re outside for the next three months, at a minimum. Every governor should mandate mandatory mask-wearing,” Biden said at his first joint appearance his vice-presidential running mate. “Let’s institute a mask mandate nationwide starting immediately, and we will save lives.”
A new paper out this week shows Biden’s plan for a federal mask mandate isn’t just unconstitutional, however, but also anti-science. According to researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the United Kingdom in a paper released Thursday examining several metrics of social distancing, being outside presents almost no risk of contracting the novel Wuhan coronavirus on its own.
In the chart below, the scientists outline the risk of individual infection under myriad circumstances. They found being outside without a face mask in a low-occupancy space is almost always safe absent shouting. Those in low-occupancy spaces with no masks and no shouting only moderately raise the risk of transmission.
Where masks are effective outside, the researchers concluded, are in high-occupancy spaces where singing and shouting are present such as the mass protests celebrated by the very politicians and public health officials keeping churches and businesses shut down.
Last week, Biden capped off the Democratic convention week with a joint interview with ABC. In it, the presidential candidate pledged he would go even further to combat the virus by shutting the entire nation down if White House bureaucrats recommended such an extreme measure.
“I would shut it down,” Biden said.
Other research shows that strict lockdowns cause far more evil public health consequences than the virus itself.
