President Joe Biden — who campaigned on a promise to "shut down" the Wuhan coronavirus and not our country — is set to announce an extension to a federal mask mandate for several modes of transportation and transit hubs through mid-March, according to White House sources first reported by Reuters and confirmed by The New York Times.
It's also worth noting that one of President Biden's first acts once he swore the oath of office was to implement a mask mandate for federal property and issue a challenge to all Americans to wear face coverings for 100 days as part of his supposedly ingenious plan to defeat the virus. When he previewed his intention for an initial masking order before taking office, President-Elect Biden told CNN's Jake Tapper that it would be "just 100 days to mask, not forever. One hundred days."
Remember this? https://t.co/6gmQiqj35Y pic.twitter.com/c3107sGHGx
— Kyle Martinsen (@KyleMartinsen_) December 2, 2021
Well, it's now been more than 300 days since Biden issued his 100-day masking challenge, and he's again set to use his power to extend the federal order that requires masks for individuals — regardless of vaccination status — aboard planes, trains, buses, ferries, ride-shares, and other forms of public transportation as well as anyone within airports and other transit hubs.
Scoop: Biden administration to extend mask mandate through mid-March https://t.co/ZgEbSUCfHi
— davidshepardson (@davidshepardson) December 1, 2021
Thursday's expected announcement of the forthcoming extension by the Biden administration comes after the Transportation Security Administration lengthened the mask mandate for travelers in August to its current expiration date of January 18th, according to Reuters, nearly a full year since Biden's 100-day challenge began.
Reuters' sources say the extension is set to be announced as part of the Biden administration's unveiling of how it plans to handle the Wuhan coronavirus over the winter months after apparently not defeating it so far as promised.
As Townhall previously reported, part of Biden's plan includes more stringent requirements for people coming into the United States from other countries — unless they cross the country's southern border illegally, of course — and new steps taken in response to the new Omicron variant that was confirmed to have arrived in the United States on Wednesday.
Katie covered the panic over Omicron, which, as it turns out so far, "isn't making people sicker." Even the South African doctor who announced the new variant is confounded by the outsized reaction, saying "I have been stunned at the response," as Townhall covered here. The doctor continued, saying "nothing I have seen about this new variant warrants the extreme action the UK government has taken in response to it" as "no one here in South Africa is known to have been hospitalised with the Omicron variant, nor is anyone here believed to have fallen seriously ill with it."
But that didn't stop U.S. markets from taking a dive on the news nor, apparently, did it stop the Biden administration from using it as justification to issue another mask mandate extension. As a result, fully vaccinated Americans' hopes of soon traveling maskless have again been dashed on the rocks of Biden's Wuhan coronavirus policies.