Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., told Newsmax on Friday that Democrats were ''throwing science out the window'' when it comes to how they are dealing with COVID.
''If you look at this, you know that the science is being thrown out the window a lot of times because a lot of these Democrats wanted the (COVID-related) shutdowns last year, they wanted to keep kids out of schools, and you see some of them trying to lay the groundwork for that to happen again. That can't happen again," Scalise said on ''Eric Bolling The Balance.''
''The science says the kids should be in schools, and vaccinated people are protected by and large, and we should be promoting the vaccine as safe and effective.''
The House minority whip said he shared the frustrations of many Republican colleagues in the House after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., required that masks be worn on the floor, while the Senate has no such mandate.
''Somehow COVID stops at the Senate chamber. Because if you're in the House chamber, Pelosi saying, you'll get arrested if you come in without a mask, but if you go in the Senate without a mask, it's fine,'' he said. ''This is the kind of mixed messages and lunacy that is driving people nuts all across the country.''
House Attending Physician Dr. Brian Monahan issued a memo Tuesday night telling lawmakers that they needed to wear masks in the House chamber and other areas.
"For all House Office Buildings, the Hall of the House, and House Committee Meetings, wearing of a well-fitted, medical grade, filtration face mask is required when an individual is in an interior space and other individuals are present," Monahan wrote.
"For the Congress, representing a collection of individuals traveling weekly from various risk areas (both high and low rates of disease transmission), all individuals should wear a well-fitted, medical-grade filtration mask (for example, an ear loop surgical mask or a KN95 mask) when they are in an interior space."
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., asked how the science changes between the House and Senate sides of the Capitol for there to be differing policies.
''You see, you have to wear your mask here. Otherwise, you're fined because that's what government should do — they should punish people. ... But if you walk across the hall, you get somewhere around the Rotunda, you don't have to wear it anymore. Somehow the science is different,'' McCarthy said.
Scalise said that he is concerned that the new mask mandates, spurred by new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance this week that both vaccinated and unvaccinated people should wear masks inside to prevent the spread of the more contagious delta variant of COVID-19, are in stark contrast to the Democrats allowing thousands of migrants to enter the country illegally with COVID, and without masks.
''If a citizen wants to come into the United States Capitol and see your government in action (without a mask) they will arrest you,'' he said. ''Speaker Pelosi was behind an arrest order that said, they'll arrest you (even if) vaccinated if you don't have a mask in the Capitol. Yet you can come across our southern border illegally and get an air or bus ticket to go all throughout America spreading COVID.''
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