MSNBC’s Morning Joe simply can’t quit masking. On the Thursday program, New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay claimed that masking is still “an act of solidarity and respect, not just for people with certain health vulnerabilities, but also for racial minorities.
Host Joe Scarborough sent the conversation Gay’s way by lamenting that people no longer seem to care about COVID, “But we have let our guards—our guard down and a lot of people, again, have gotten sick and we’re still-- what, 1,000 people some days are dying from COVID.”
Gay agreed in lamenting that people have mostly moved on:
Yeah, you know, I think it is an important moment to recognize, everybody is weary, but the impact has not been equal across the American population or the world and so I just want to say, you know, a virus does not a pandemic make. What makes this a pandemic is the fact that 1,000 Americans are still dying from this virus. It is not the flu and also, many, many more, unfortunately, are coming down with symptoms of long COVID, which has become endemic and anybody is susceptible to.
Because we are not yet at the place to treat COVID like the flu, masking is still necessary:
So, I actually understand why it can be freeing to not wear a mask on a plane or a train, on the subway. That's fine. But I think we just need to acknowledge that there are still people and communities for whom this is an everyday fact of life that they have to think about and masking remains an act of solidarity and respect for vulnerable people, that includes people with disabilities, with chronic conditions like asthma, as well as for hard-hit communities like native and black communities especially, Hispanic communities that have been hit especially hard by this virus.
Gay would continue, “It just doesn't cost me that much to put on a mask for someone else.”
What makes Gay’s remarks even crazier is that her fellow panelist and New York Times colleague David Leonhardt, who is not exactly a Republican, less than 10 minutes earlier criticized liberals for overstating the effectiveness of mask mandates.
This segment was sponsored by ClearChoice.
Here is a transcript for the September 8 show:
MSNBC Morning Joe
9/8/2022
7:30 AM ET
DAVID LEONHARDT: Liberal activists have sometimes exaggerated the effect of mask mandates, which just don't seem to work that well. Mandates. Masks work, but mandates don't work well, unless you really get people to follow them, which you're not getting Americans to do for three years.
…
7:37 AM ET
JOE SCARBOROUGH: But we have let our guards—our guard down and a lot of people, again, have gotten sick--
MARA GAY: Yeah.
SCARBOROUGH: -- and we’re still-- what, 1,000 people--
GAY: Yeah.
SCARBOROUGH: -- some days are dying from COVID.
GAY: Yeah, you know, I think it is an important moment to recognize, everybody is weary, but the impact has not been equal across the American population or the world and so I just want to say, you know, a virus does not a pandemic make. What makes this a pandemic is the fact that 1,000 Americans are still dying from this virus. It is not the flu and also, many, many more, unfortunately, are coming down with symptoms of long COVID, which has become endemic and anybody is susceptible to. It’s a much larger problem that we're really not addressing with any kind of urgency. So as long as that's the case, as long as we actually don't have the treatment and the medication to truly make this something that is closer to a cold, and we're not there yet, which is what we're not really, kind of, acknowledging, this is still a serious situation. So, I actually understand why it can be freeing to not wear a mask on a plane or a train, on the subway. That's fine. But I think we just need to acknowledge that there are still people and communities for whom this is an everyday fact of life--
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Right
GAY: -- that they have to think about and masking remains an act of solidarity and respect for vulnerable people, that includes people with disabilities, with chronic conditions like asthma, as well as for hard-hit communities like native and black communities especially, Hispanic communities that have been hit especially hard by this virus. So we need more—
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah.
GAY: -- urgency around treatment for long COVID. We need more urgency around respect for vulnerable communities. It just doesn't cost me that much to put on a mask for someone else.
