As the U.S. nears the five-year mark since nationwide lockdowns turned toilet paper into a hot commodity, Fox News Digital took a look back at some of the most controversial mandates – those that sparked debate – and, to some, defied logic.
1. FAUCI’S CONTRADICTIONS
Former NIAID Director Anthony Fauci was a ubiquitous sight throughout the pandemic, during the administrations of both Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
The octogenarian allergist, who had been with the government since 1968 and appointed head of the NIH’s infectious disease arm by former President Ronald Reagan, was often lambasted for contradictory or questionable medical orders.
Fauci drew heat for apparent contradictions in mask-wearing orders, with critics often locking onto the certainty with which the Brooklynite announced each countervailing development.
In March 2020, Fauci told “60 Minutes” about “unintended consequences” of wearing masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
“People keep fiddling with the mask and they keep touching their face,” he said, suggesting germs and viruses could be spread by too much fidgeting.
Soon after, and for most of the rest of the pandemic, Fauci was adamant that Americans must wear masks nearly at all times in public.
He raised eyebrows further when he told CNBC it might be time to double up on masks – a stance that clashed with claims from right-wing physicians who warned that excessive face coverings could obstruct breathing.
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Dr. Anthony Fauci (Getty)
“If you have a physical covering with one layer, you put another layer on it just makes common sense that it likely would be more effective,” Fauci said.
National Review writer David Harsanyi balked at the order at the time, quipping, “No, thanks, Dad.”
Current Secretary of State Marco Rubio also commented at the time about Fauci’s varied orders:
“Dr. Fauci is a very good public-health official. His job is to advise policymakers and inform the public, but his job is not to decide what we can do, where we can go or which places can open or close. His job is not to mislead or scare us into doing the [supposed] right things,” the Floridian said.
Pennsylvania’s most visible shutdown-opposing lawmaker, who later ran for governor on a related “Walk as Free People” slogan, regularly quipped in public remarks at people he would see driving alone in their cars on Interstate 81 while wearing a mask.
“You can’t make this stuff up,” Sen. Doug Mastriano often repeated.
2. WING NUTS
New York City is known for its pizza, bagels, heros and chopped cheese – but western New York holds another food item just as dear – the Buffalo wing.
The COVID-19 lockdowns proved the love upstaters have for their chicken apps after then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo laid out what “substantive food” a watering hole has to offer in order for patrons to go out for a drink.
Buffalo wings (iStock)
“To be a bar, you have to have food available. Soups, sandwiches – More than just hors d’oeuvres, chicken wings; you had to have some substantive food,” he said.
New Yorkers used to sloshing Frank’s Red Hot on their chicken became Red Hot themselves and lambasted the governor for appearing to define their beloved dish as less than a meal.
The outrage led to a New York state communications official later tweeting a diagrammed-sentence breakdown of Cuomo’s comments, seeking to illustrate that the clause “more than just hors d’oeuvres” was an interjection and that “chicken wings” were to be associated with the “soups, sandwiches” mentioned – but the damage had been done.
In return, bars began charging a dollar or so each for a slice of deli meat, a handful of croutons or a single french fry in order to allow their patrons an end-round around the edict and have a cold one.
Demonstrators gather around state Rep. Russ Diamond at a Reopen PA rally in Harrisburg, May 15, 2020. (IMAGN)
In neighboring Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Wolf instituted a similar ban – requiring a meal to be purchased before alcohol could be served. The state police’s bureau of liquor enforcement patrolled towns to enforce the mandate and other regulations, warning small-town saloons that their liquor licenses were on the line.
When many restaurants were closed for eat-in dining in Pennsylvania, several lawmakers held a demonstration in Lebanon outside what was then the Taste of Sicily Italian Restaurant.
Several area lawmakers – state Reps. Russ Diamond, Frank Ryan and the late Dave Arnold – joined Mastriano and restaurant manager Mike Mangano to decry “stop the spread” orders that cut off family restaurants’ income.
Flanked by the others, Diamond read from Article I Sec. 2 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, which stated “all power is inherent in the people… and they have at all times an inalienable… right to alter, reform or abolish their government in such matter they see fit.”
“That means,” he said, “You can exercise your constitutional right to abolish the interminable b—- of this government, which happens to be the governor’s obtuse, stupid and bass-ackward orders.”
3. SUNDAY DRIVERS BEWARE
In Pennsylvania, Wolf and Health Secretary Rachel Levine were ubiquitous on the airwaves with their lockdown provisions and orders – from traffic-light color-coded maps instructing which counties’ residents could have varying levels of freedom, to Levine’s daily warning on TV to “stay home, stay calm, stay safe.”
Early in the shutdown period, the Wolf administration utilized a seven-decade-old state law aimed at blunting a syphilis outbreak as legal backing for some of their orders.
In April 2020, a York woman was charged under that statute when she tried to quell her cabin fever with a Sunday drive.
Anita Shaffer told local media at the time she had been returning home from a drive when she passed police parked in the town of Yoe.
Originally stopped for a broken taillight, Shaffer was ultimately issued a $202 ticket for violating the Disease Prevention and Control Act of 1955, which was described to her as the “stay-at-home-act” in force at the time – to which she pleaded “not guilty.”
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Supporters of Pennsylvania Sen. Doug Mastriano hold signs emblazoned with his anti-COVID-lockdown slogan, “Walk as Free People.”
