Blaze News original: Let us not forget the COVID masking madness those in power put us through

Blaze News recently took detailed looks at a pair of contentious reactions to the spread of the coronavirus several years ago — the left's reprehensible behavior toward fellow Americans who refused COVID jabs and then how COVID lockdown lunacy, tyranny, and hypocrisy harmed all of us.

In this installment, we're breaking down the fallout from masking madness.

'As a concerned carry-permitted gun owner, if you refuse to wear a mask and try to come within 6 feet of me or my family, I will exercise the same constitutional rights to shoot you.'

It's not terribly hard to recall how insane things were at the outset of the COVID pandemic with regard to masking. There were mask shortages and conflicting guidance on their use. Then-U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams posted on social media in early 2020, "Seriously people - STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can't get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!"

Dr. Anthony Fauci reportedly flipped-flopped on his masking views. Then last year he admitted that there was no scientific evidence behind the six-foot social distancing protocol — or the guidelines for masking children, according to bombshell congressional testimony.

In the meantime, masking mandates were in full swing. It was rare to see folks in public without them. Along with that came scary, ridiculous, and hypocritical behavior.

In the below collection of vignettes, we revisit a bizarre tale of a high school that actually used individual tents for band students so they could play their instruments amid the COVID spread ... elected officials who fiercely enforced masking protocols and ignored them for themselves ... a prominent doctor who said "let 'em die" in regard to those who didn't wear masks ... blatant threats ... admissions of "political theater" in regard to masking ... and tyrannical statements.

This is how they treated us. Never forget.

High school mercilessly mocked for placing band students in tents so they can practice amid pandemic

Washington state's Wenatchee High School in February 2021 came up with a novel way to allow band members to practice their instruments while remaining socially distant in the battle against COVID-19 — placing the students inside individual tents, KCPQ-TV reported.

Of course, students can't wear masks while playing trombones and clarinets. Ergo, the tents were their masks. You can view a video report here showing an extended interview with the school's principal — and the band students in their tents performing.

A number of observers on social media were both disturbed and amused:

• "Well this confirms it," a Twitter user declared. "Our decision to move to a Red state is definitely correct."
• "Can someone in the Wenatchee area donate a couple of their old camping tents to the high school for the poor tuba players?" another user asked.
• "That adults, government, teachers or parents, would abuse young people like this is unimaginable," another commenter wrote.
• "They're just f***ing with us at this point," another user said.

Democrat Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said he held his breath when photo was snapped of him not wearing mask while standing next to Magic Johnson at NFL playoff game

Then-Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) said he held his breath when a photo was taken of him not wearing a mask while standing next to NBA legend Magic Johnson at the NFC Championship Game at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, in January 2022.

Stadium rules stated that "masks are required for all attendees except when actively eating or drinking" in accordance with an order from the Los Angeles County Department of Pubic Health.

“I’ll take personal responsibility,” Garcetti said, according to Deadline. "And if it makes you and everyone else happy — or even the photographs with people where literally I’m holding my breath for two seconds — I won’t even do that.”

One individual on X cast some doubt in regard to the issue, stating that "Eric Garcetti hopes you’re dumb enough to believe that he held his breath every single time he took his mask off at the Rams game."

Photos show far-left California Gov. Gavin Newsom dining unmasked with large party at ritzy restaurant — and state Medical Association officials were among the guests

The optics were sorely lacking after photos showed far-left California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) dining unmasked in a fancy French restaurant with a large group of unmasked guests in November 2020. Certainly a faux pas considering the controversial COVID-19 dining restrictions he instituted.

But Politico soon reported that California Medical Association officials — of all people — were among the guests seated with Newsom at the "opulent birthday dinner at the French Laundry restaurant this month." Sacré bleu!

CMA spokesperson Anthony York told Politico in a statement that "the dinner was held in accordance with state and county guidelines." Lobbying firm Axiom Advisors said it was an outdoor dinner, the outlet reported, adding that Napa County restaurants were permitted to offer indoor service at the time of the Nov. 6 event.

Still, Newsom acknowledged the dinner was a "bad mistake." According to Fox News, he added that "I should have stood up and ... drove back to my house. The spirit of what I'm preaching all the time was contradicted. I need to preach and practice, not just preach."

Despite his admissions, that wouldn't be the first time Newsom was accused of COVID masking hypocrisy. He was photographed without a mask at the NFC Championship Game in early 2022 despite SoFi Stadium rules stating that "masks are required for all attendees except when actively eating or drinking" in accordance with an order from the Los Angeles County Department of Pubic Health. In July 2021, he pulled his children from a summer camp that had no mask requirement — but only after maskless photos emerged on social media.

Hot mic appears to catch Pennsylvania's Democrat governor, state rep laughing about 'political theater' of wearing masks

A video that circulated online in September 2020 appeared to show Pennsylvania Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf and Democrat state Rep. Wendy Ullman chuckling over the "political theater" of wearing masks.

The two were preparing to take part in a news conference in Doylestown — a Philadelphia suburb — when Wolf told Ullman, "So Wendy, I'm gonna take — I'm gonna take my mask off when I speak."

Ullman, who was standing near the microphone with her mask still on, then walked toward Wolf and responded off camera, "I will as well, just, I'm waiting so that we can do a little political theater."

Wolf replied, "OK," and the two officials shared a laugh before Ullman walked back toward the podium and added, "So that it's on camera."

Blaze News reached out to both officials for comment about the exchange, but neither immediately replied by the time of publication.

Others had a few things to say, though. One Twitter user replied to a post made by Ullman, saying, "I enjoyed your political theater, meanwhile families and businesses suffer." Another wrote: "Pelosi, Feinstein, now this. Rules for thee, but not for me." The mayor of Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, blasted Wolf's and Ullman's actions, saying, "The destruction of the livelihoods of millions of Pennsylvanians is no laughing matter and we don't find this entertaining."

Earlier in September 2020, a federal judge ruled that the state's burdensome lockdowns were unconstitutional. Not long before, Wolf issued an order that made wearing masks mandatory and implemented a policy that limited indoor gatherings to 25 people and outdoor gatherings to 250 people.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot caught breaking own COVID mask mandates

Then-Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) found herself in hot water in October 2021 after posting a photo of herself violating her own city and state mask requirements.

The left-winger came under fire after posting a photo of herself violating the city's mask mandate during the Chicago Sky's WNBA championship victory. As the Sky took the league title over the Phoenix Mercury, Lightfoot was packed into the city's Wintrust Arena with other fans for the game, Fox News reported. The photo in question shows her celebrating the team without wearing a mask — while surrounded by scores of masked fans. Her move violated both her city mask mandates and the state's mask requirement.

According to Wintrust Arena, fans were required to wear masks at all times, except when eating or drinking, Fox News said. Lightfoot was neither eating nor drinking. The mayor's office did not respond to the cable news network's request for comment.

It wasn't a first for her. Lightfoot repeatedly warned against gathering in large crowds and even blasted a "Reopen Illinois" rally for daring to violate Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker's stay-at-home order. But in November 2020, she defied the state's commands and joined hundreds of people in the streets of Chicago to celebrate Joe Biden's presidential election while not wearing a mask.

Prominent doctor reacts to news video showing maskless Floridians in grocery store by declaring, 'Let 'em die. I'm so tired of these people. No vaccines for y'all.'

On Feb. 3, 2021, NBC News correspondent Sam Brock shared a video on X showing maskless shoppers and employees inside the Oakes Farms Seed to Table Market in Naples, Florida. The caption of Brock's video post reads, "Store sign outside cites 'medical exemptions,' we can't ask questions."

The video caught the attention of Cleavon Gilman, an emergency room physician who got a phone call months earlier from then-President Joe Biden thanking him for his work fighting against the pandemic.

Gilman went on a now-deleted rant directed toward those seen without masks in the NBC News video: "Let 'em die. I'm so tired of these people. No vaccines for y'all."

Gilman also stated — presumably in the wake of his first shot over the bow — that "Republicans trying to take my words out of context as if I deny medical care to people that don't wear masks & 'let 'em die.' My point is that we can't waste our energy on these COVID deniers.. they are not gonna protect themselves, so let 'em die. They'll find out the hard way."

Gilman also wrote that he treats "every patient that comes through the door" the same and that "many" are "gasping for breath and devastated when they find out COVID is not a hoax."

The previous November, Gilman posted on X, "Just as active alcoholics with terminal liver disease are REFUSED liver transplants... People who don't follow preventative public health measures against COVID19 should be the LAST to get hospital beds." That post also appears to have been deleted.

Nancy Pelosi torched for swanky maskless Napa Valley fundraiser: 'It's utter hypocrisy'

Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) was seen schmoozing with Democratic deep-pocket donors, none of whom appeared to be wearing masks, at a Napa Valley fundraiser in August 2021.

New York Times journalist Kenneth Vogel posted an invitation for the fundraiser, which shows that tickets started at $100 and were as much as $29,000 per chair. The money raised went to vulnerable frontline Democrats in danger of losing seats in the 2022 midterm elections.

Prominent individuals lampooned Pelosi for the maskless event:

• Then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.): "Speaker Pelosi wants to lock you down again while she wines and dines with her political donors. It's utter hypocrisy."
• Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald: "All the servants fully masked. The almost-entirely old, white, rich crowd of DCCC donors free to go maskless as they're served."
• Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.): "Speaker Pelosi does not care about #COVID. Democrats don't care about covid. They only care about controlling you. Magical covid science: The virus stops spreading the minute you sit down to eat or when you speak in a microphone or if you are one of the elites. Liars."
• Progressive political commentator Jimmy Dore: "Isn't this what they used to call a 'Super-Spreader Event'? They don't seem worried at all. What do the rich elite know that we don't?"
• Attorney Harmeet K. Dhillon: "SUPERSPREADER EVENT!"
• BlazeTV "Relatable" podcast host Allie Beth Stuckey: "They're not scared of COVID, in case you hadn't noticed."
• Former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell: "The white people are all free to breathe without a mask. The people of color must wear masks — and serve. Stop voting for Democrats…they are laughing at how easy you are to manipulate."

Arnold Schwarzenegger says 'you're a schmuck for not wearing a mask' and defends health experts: 'Screw your freedom!'

Arnold Schwarzenegger in August 2021 blasted Americans who refused to wear masks after another spike in the coronavirus infections. Schwarzenegger made the comments during an interview with CNN's Bianna Golodryga.

He said people should trust experts such as Dr. Anthony Fauci because they studied the issue for so long — and Schwarzenegger criticized those concerned that their "freedom is being disturbed." With that, he exclaimed, "Screw your freedom!"

He also said, "Yeah, you have the freedom to wear no mask. But you know something, you're a schmuck for not wearing a mask because you're supposed to protect the fellow members around you."

Republican Maryland governor says 'there's no constitutional right to walk around without a mask'

Then-Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, said in a November 2020 coronavirus media briefing that that "there's no constitutional right to walk around without a mask."

"It's sort of like saying I have a constitutional right to drive drunk, I have a constitutional right to not wear a seatbelt or to yell fire in a crowded movie theater or to not follow the speed limit," Hogan added.

"We're talking about a quarter of a million people dying already. You know, more than, you know, the Korean War, the Gulf War, and the Vietnam War added together. Which part don't you understand?" he asked.

Elementary school teacher placed on leave after comparing anti-maskers to the KKK

A Nebraska elementary school teacher was placed on administrative leave in August 2021 after she shared a social media post comparing anti-maskers to the Ku Klux Klan.

The Elkhorn Public School District announced on Aug. 24 that an unnamed elementary teacher was placed on leave for an unspecified amount of time after posting an illustration comparing people who were against masks with members of the KKK. The image showed the phrase "Isn't it strange they can breathe in this" next to a klansman hood and the words "but not this" next a COVID mask, WOWT-TV reported.

The anonymous teacher told the station, "My personal views on politics, masking, those are outside of the classroom. I love my job. My opinions are not part of my job. I do my job, I teach math, I teach literature, I teach critical thinking skills. We don't talk about politics."

High school staff member who called student 'piece of s**t' over mask dispute resigns, principal says

John Mensik, principal of Glenbard North High School in Carol Stream, Illinois, told Fox News in September 2021 that a staff member who was seen in a viral video calling a student a "piece of s**t" for allegedly wearing a mask improperly had resigned.

Fox News said the clip was posted on social media along with a caption that read, "My friend had his mask under his nose, and this Karen went crazy, got up in his face and cuzed [sic] at him."

Fox News said the staffer told the student, "I knew you were going to take off your mask the moment I turned the corner." He then threatened the student with in-school suspension before telling the student that it was "because you're a piece of s**t."

Fox News added that in response to the video circulating online, Mensik sent parents a notice saying the incident was being investigated and would be handled "in an appropriate manner."

Gym holds maskless Christmas party in private home; city officials launch investigation

Officials in Durham, North Carolina, launched an investigation after learning that a fitness studio held a 2020 Christmas party in a private residence during which at least two dozen people gathered without masks, which violated state and local COVID-19 restrictions, WRAL-TV reported.

Triangle Krav Maga posted photos of the party on Facebook, the station said, adding that it featured movies, pizza, "quality booze," a white elephant exchange and other games, and a sleepover for kids.

"Sure beats sitting at home in a mask, doesn't it?" a Facebook post noted about the event, which WRAL said was deleted after the station began asking questions about the party.

Durham officials received at least two complaints about the party, city spokeswoman Amy Blalock told the station.

Triangle Krav Maga owners Molotov Mitchell and his wife, Dr. Greer Gunther, didn't return multiple requests for comment, the station reported.

WRAL said Gunther at the time was in the second year of a child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at Duke University School of Medicine and that Duke officials didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The News & Observer reported that some social media posts noted that a Duke University psychiatrist was at the party and encouraged people to contact the university.

Good news for anyone hoping to look like a lunatic: 'Pac-Man' face mask invention allows wearers to eat without actually removing mask

Israeli inventors created a "Pac-Man" mask, KXAS-TV reported in May 2020, which allowed wearers to eat without taking the mask off. Wearers could squeeze a lever that opened a slot in the mask and allowed wearers to eat like the Pac-Man from the iconic video game.

You can view a video report here that shows the mask in action.

Celebrities allowed to go maskless at the 2021 Oscars while the cameras are on — but need to wear them during commercials

In April 2021, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that Oscar ceremony attendees would not have to wear masks during the telecast — but would have to wear them during commercial breaks, Variety reported.

"Yep, according to the logic of selective state-imposed mask mandates for showbiz types, science apparently makes it clear that while the coronavirus cannot be transmitted while cameras are rolling, the same crowd is at risk when the telecast pauses to run advertisements," Blaze News' Chris Field wrote in regard to the odd rule.

School board member resigns after threatening to shoot maskless people who come near her or her family

A member of a Pennsylvania school board resigned in May 2020 after threatening to shoot maskless people who came near her or her family.

Jennifer Rager-Kay — then with the Selinsgrove school district's board — in a Facebook post threatened to shoot those in her or her family's path who weren't wearing masks amid the COVID-19 pandemic, PennLive reported. Rager-Kay reportedly made the remarks in response to seeing a photo of anti-lockdown protesters in Harrisburg, the state capital, who weren't wearing face masks but were openly carrying guns

"As a concerned carry-permitted gun owner, if you refuse to wear a mask and try to come within 6 feet of me or my family, I will exercise the same constitutional rights to shoot you," she wrote.

Rager-Kay announced her resignation just days after admitting that she had "received threats against my personal and professional well-being," the Sunbury Daily Item reported.

In a statement, she said, "I would like to publicly apologize to anyone offended by my most recent post regarding the hypocrisy of those who refuse to wear face masks yet walk around openly carrying guns. I am in a profession where the threat of someone approaching me not wearing a mask while in the midst of a pandemic is equivalent to the threat against my life. Just as it would be if they approached me with their gun drawn and pointed at me."

She continued, "As a wife, mother, and physician, it is my job and responsibility to 'do no harm,' and the constant barrage of protests and defiance to public health reached a boiling point for me, thus the reason for my overly dramatic and exaggerated post. My words demonstrated how constitutional rights can be misinterpreted and were meant to serve as an example of extremism."

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