House Speak Nancy Pelosi Mandates House Members To Wear Masks After Rep. Louie Gohmert Tests Positive For COVID-19

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Wednesday that she would mandate that all members of House of Representatives wear masks hours after Rep. Louie Gohmert tested positive on Wednesday.

“Members and staff will be required to wear masks in the halls of the House,” Pelosi said.

“The chair would also like to remind members that the speaker has the authority to direct the sergeant at arms to remove a member from the floor as a matter of decorum,” Pelosi added. “To reiterate, the chair views the failure to wear a mask as a serious breach of decorum.”

There have also been discussions to implement regular testing. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer suggest the possibility.

“We’re not mandating testing at this point … but we’re discussing that,” Hoyer (D-Maryland) told reporters. “We have discussed it in the past. This is a moment, I think, where we ought to be discussing it again.”

Gohmert, who tested positive with coronavirus on Wednesday, often dismissed wearing a mask. He told CNN in June he did not wear one because he tested regularly.

In an interview with KETK-TV, Gohmert claimed he could have contracted the infection because he wore a mask, saying it “might have put some germs and some of the virus on the mask and breathed it in.”

“It is interesting, and I don’t know about everybody, but when I have a mask on, I’m moving it to make it comfortable, and I can’t help but wonder if that puts some germs in the mask,” Gohmert said.

His claim, however, has no evidence. Studies and the WHO guidelines show that wearing a mask can slow down the spread of coronavirus.

Article by Polina Kuznetsova