"There's a lot of fear and misinformation in the country," said President Biden in the opening remarks of his Thursday evening announcement of new vaccine mandates for federal employees, contractors, and facilities. But Biden quickly became a source of misinformation that contradicts his own administration's guidance.
As he removed his mask and held it up in his hand, Biden claimed that "in a significant part of the country, you wouldn't have to take one of these off because you don't have to put one on, like in my home state of Delaware... because people got vaccinated."
WATCH: Biden contradicts the CDC and says if you are vaccinated you DON'T need to wear a mask. pic.twitter.com/WIIoZ2WGxi
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) July 29, 2021
"You don't need a mask when you...when a majority...when a vast majority of people got vaccinated," Biden added, directly contradicting the new CDC guidance based on transmission data, not vaccination numbers.
Biden also started his speech by saying "you don't need a mask if you're vaccinated." The CDC two days ago said the EXACT OPPOSITE.
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) July 29, 2021
This week, the CDC issued a "recommendation for fully vaccinated people to wear a mask in public indoor settings in areas of substantial or high transmission." Their reversal in masking guidance for vaccinated Americans is not dependent on the quantity or percentage of vaccinated people, as Biden stated in his remarks.
If, as Biden said, those Americans in areas with at least a majority of vaccinated individuals didn't need to wear a mask, the White House press corps covering the announcement wouldn't have been masked. But they were.
That's because the nation's capital chose to implement the new CDC guidance on masking based on community transmission. In Washington, D.C. — where more than 72% of residents eligible to receive a vaccine have gotten at least one dose and almost 63% are fully vaccinated — everyone over two years old must now wear a mask when indoors whether they're vaccinated or not.
1) Not how vaccines work.
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) July 29, 2021
2) A majority of DC is fully vaccinated & the local Dem government just reimposed a mask mandate, including vaccinated adults and no-risk children, based on no data. https://t.co/HM6j4OQgXP
In classic Biden fashion, the President left the podium without wearing the mask he'd dramatically taken off and held up at the beginning of his speech, violating his own administration's mandate.
Joe Biden walks away from the podium without a mask, violating his own mask mandate. pic.twitter.com/6vvaSuJdMb
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 29, 2021
At the time Biden spoke, the CDC's Wuhan coronavirus dashboard showed that more than 69 percent of American counties were experiencing high or substantial community transmission, meaning the CDC's new guidance based on the Wuhan coronavirus' spread dictates mask wearing for even fully vaccinated individuals across more than two-thirds of the country.