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Biden Administration To Drain Strategic Stockpile, Hand Out 400 Million Free N95 Masks

   DailyWire.com
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 13: U.S. President Joe Biden talks to reporters after meeting with Senate Democrats in the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on January 13, 2022 in Washington, DC. Biden has called on his fellow Democrats to go around Republican opposition, do away with the 60-vote threshold for advancing legislation in the Senate and pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom To Vote Act. The strategy is in doubt because Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) oppose doing away with the filibuster. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

President Joe Biden will distribute 400 million free N95 masks beginning next week — halving the nation’s strategic stockpile.

An unnamed White House official told CNN that the initiative will hand out the masks at pharmacies and other health centers.

“This is the largest deployment of personal protective equipment in US history,” the official explained. “To ensure broad access for all Americans, there will be three masks available per person. In addition to this program, thanks to the administration’s efforts, these high-quality masks are in ample supply and widely available to American consumers.”

CNN added:

The 400 million non-surgical N95 masks amount to more than half of the 750 million stored in the US’ Strategic National Stockpile, a figure that tripled over the last year as the White House sought to boost reserves. The US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention recently advised that well-fitting respirators approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health — such as N95 masks — offer “the highest level of protection” against Covid-19.

The administration’s step comes as the US grapples with an unprecedented surge in Covid-19 cases. An average of more than 750,000 new Covid-19 infections were reported every day over the past week, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Indeed, federal health officials and lawmakers have been pushing for the adoption of more sturdy masks — such as N95s — over cloth face coverings.

For instance, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) proposed the “Masks For All Act” to manufacture and mail N95 masks to all households. Co-sponsored by lawmakers such as Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the law would allocate $5 billion toward sending three masks to every American.

“As we face the rapidly spreading Omicron variant, we should remember that not all face masks are created equal,” Sanders explained in a statement. “Congress must demand the mass production and distribution of N95 masks, one of the most effective ways to stop the spread of the Covid virus.”

“It is an absolute scandal that in the richest country in the history of the world, high-quality masks are not more readily available to frontline workers, health care workers, and all Americans,” he continued. “We are proposing that we do what our public health experts and scientists say we must do: provide all of our people with high-quality, N95 masks without cost, which could prevent death and suffering and save huge amounts of health care dollars.”

Beyond face masks, a major shift in federal COVID-19 policy occurred as the Supreme Court ruled against the Biden administration’s vaccine and testing mandate — thanks in part to a lawsuit filed by The Daily Wire.

“It’s a tremendous day for the American people and for the founding idea that this is a limited government of enumerated powers, which exists to protect, not erode, the God-given freedoms of the people,” Daily Wire Co-CEO Jeremy Boreing said after the ruling. “This spells all but certain doom for OSHA’s unimaginable overreach into the private health decisions of some 85 million Americans whose only crime is having a job at a company with more than 100 employees.”

“Drink their tears, my friends, and enjoy your freedom. By the grace of God, you still have it.”

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