Brittany Page reported on I Doubt It podcast that she had covid after being at the Democratic National Convention. Page’s partner Jesse Dollemore, a cancer survivor, who also attended, wasn’t sick and wasn’t testing positive and they were in the same room recording their podcast wearing masks. Of course it would’ve made so much more sense for them to have been wearing masks at the DNC. Mary Trump mentioned she drove there instead of flying and was masking in order to avoid covid, but then she got covid nevertheless, because she did not consistently mask – for example, she was seen on The Daily Show unmasked.
3M’s proper respiratory protection instructions that say: “To be effective, a respirator needs to be worn correctly and worn throughout the duration of the hazardous exposure. People using a respirator will need to go to an area with safe air to remove the respirator for any reason, including to eat and drink.”
Almost nobody masked at the DNC and it became a superspreader event. And it was likely because masks were essentially discouraged. If someone read the FAQ on the DNC 2024 website, and saw it said “masks will be allowed if necessary due to a disability” – they would of course assume a blanket ban on masks with rare exception. In most circumstances where you are a guest someplace, you do not need to provide a doctor’s note about your medical condition to request ADA accommodation, but most people don’t know that. When the average person sees “due to a disability” they will assume that it applies only to people “on disability” or disabled in some visible way, or at the least that they would be required to provide a doctor’s note. Most people would hesitate to even ask about it.
In another part of this same FAQ on this same website is also the statement of their COVID policy as: “The 2024 Democratic National Convention Committee adheres to current guidance from relevant public health authorities regarding COVID-19. Masking is not required at convention events, but any participant desiring to wear a mask is welcome to do so.” This makes it clear anyone is welcome to mask, but how many people expanded that question? And the DNC didn’t encourage anyone to mask. They didn’t warn people that they could get covid. The DNC didn’t ask people who were currently sick or testing positive to at least mask! I’m sure people went in unmasked knowing or suspecting they had covid — this happens all the time. They may have figured they couldn’t mask anyway – or at least didn’t have to, according to “current guidance from relevant public health authorities”!
But the DNC was not actually adhering to current guidance. The CDC mentions that people who are sick should mask up, saying things like: “When worn by a person with an infection, masks reduce the spread of the virus to others.” On the CDC Preventing Spread of Respiratory Viruses When You’re Sick page updated March 1, 2024 it says specifically when conducting “normal activities” take precaution with “cleaner air, hygiene, masks, physical distancing, and/or testing when you will be around other people indoors. This is especially important to protect people with factors that increase their risk of severe illness from respiratory viruses.” This event didn’t mention any of this in their so-called COVID policy. The CDC also specifically says: “Organizations can – Advise people to stay home if they are sick.” The Chicago city government website refers to these CDC recommendations too. And the Illinois Department of Public Health guidance says if you’re ill stay home or at least wear a mask when around others.
The DNC event didn’t even bother to link to any of this, or incorporate any of this guidance into their covid protocol. So they were NOT “adhering to current guidance” because wearing a mask when sick is the current guidance. CDC guidance isn’t nearly good enough to be truly inclusive to the disabled but it would’ve been a lot better than nothing.
To be truly disability accommodating, they would’ve had a universal masking requirement and test to enter. That’s just the reality. The pseudoscience idea of “focused protection” was a fantasy by the Great Barrington Declaration which never actually explained how elderly people would be hermetically sealed away from young care workers and the rest of society who are continuously reinfected. It sure seems like the very top tiers of the Democratic Party organizers have been brainwashed by right-wing ad campaigns targeting liberals, and foreign anti-mask propaganda. They should be ashamed of themselves that they couldn’t even bother to look at what the CDC recommends, let alone Chicago or the Illinois state recommendations. They just bluffed it and a lot of people got sick.