She’s 79 years old. Given her risk profile, it wouldn’t be the worst idea she’s ever had.

Especially since she’s had a lot of bad ideas.

The concern here isn’t that Behar might mask indefinitely due to her age, which is understandable. The concern is that she might mask indefinitely due to her politics, which would be indefensible. Watch.

The View is upset places are lifting mask mandates.
"I would wear a mask and I might do that indefinitely," Joy Behar declares. "I'm listening to myself right now."
Sunny Hostin claims "I worry about the kids" and that's why she'll keep them smothered. pic.twitter.com/IQ0dOXhG3t

— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) February 17, 2022

“Personally, I listen to the little voice in my head that doesn’t really follow 100 percent what they tell me because they keep changing it,” she says at one point. Do I detect a whiff of conspiratorial thinking there? Conservatives have spent the past few weeks accusing Democratic governors of dropping state mandates not because the science has changed but because the polling has. And there’s truth to that, no doubt. What if … the left agrees?

That is, what if hypercautious liberals conclude that mandates aren’t being lifted because the COVID threat has receded but rather because the midterms are approaching and their leaders are suddenly putting electoral concerns above “the science”? Every mandate in the country might fall tomorrow and Democrats could turn around and say, “Sorry, we don’t believe you,” and go right on masking as if nothing has changed. Especially since the experts whom they trust won’t reassure them that it really has become safer lately to unmask.

For some lefties, following “the science” means, and can only mean, taking maximum precautions, at least until Anthony Fauci tells them otherwise. I wonder how many Joy Behars out there will decide to “do their own research” about the ongoing threat once the expert class stops telling them what they expect to hear. And how many might actually turn against their party for relaxing restrictions in the meantime, believing that Democratic governors who ease mandates are being reckless and selfish.

YouGov asked a pertinent question about this in its most recent poll. “Do you think you will still sometimes wear a face mask in public once your community removes mask requirements?” The somewhat surprising results:

Even 40 percent of Republicans intend to continue masking voluntarily. The age split is surprising too:

I would not have expected senior citizens to be *less* inclined to mask voluntarily than twentysomethings are given how widely their respective risk from COVID diverges. But here too we see the power of partisan thinking at work. The 18/29 group split 60/36 for Joe Biden in 2020; the 65+ group split 52/47 for Trump. Instead of letting their health dictate their approach to masking, Americans of all ages appear to be letting their politics dictate it. That’s unfortunate for left-leaning young adults, who’ll end up masking when they don’t really need to. For right-leaning older adults, it’s potentially fatal.

Note, though, that the YouGov question didn’t ask people how long they might continue to mask once mandates are lifted. Some might mask voluntarily for a month after restrictions are rolled back, waiting to see if “the coast is clear” from COVID. Others might do it for much longer. Again, politics probably plays a key role. Check out the spread among the parties when YouGov asked, “When do you think it will be safe to resume normal life activities?”

The most popular Republican answer: It’s already safe! The most popular Democratic answer: Check back next year. Joy Behar, devout Democrat, will probably be masking until New Year’s, at least.

Speaking of geriatrics masking, there’s political news this afternoon:

NEW — ALL MEMBERS OF CONGRESS will be permitted to attend SOTU on March 1, per attending physician.

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) February 17, 2022

Attendees will need to wear an N95 and show proof of a negative COVID test the day before. Pelosi had initially limited attendance to 25 members of each party, a potential optics disaster at a moment when many Americans want to pivot to post-pandemic living. Imagine the average voter, having just watched 70,000 maskless fans go nuts at the Super Bowl, tuning into Democrats’ COVID theater at the SOTU with a grand total of 50 people in the House to see Biden speak. Earlier this month I predicted that Pelosi would revisit her scheme: “COVID will be so scant in D.C. by [March 1] and the politics of an empty chamber will be so bad for Democrats as most of the country transitions to quasi-normalcy that she’s destined to rethink her approach in the next few weeks.” Now here we are on February 17, with Washington among the bottom 10 of U.S. states in the number of local COVID cases per 100,000, and the capacity limit on the SOTU is gone. I don’t know what she was thinking by capping attendance in the first place.

Granted, they’re not getting back to full normalcy for the SOTU. As I say, masks are still required. But that’s probably prudent for a gerontocracy like Congress.

I’ll leave you with this. We shouldn’t expect mask mandates for the flu, says Fauci, but voluntarily masking during flu season? Sure, that seems sensible. Democrats will never unmask again.

Fauci says people should be wearing masks for flu season pic.twitter.com/XDFf0NoyXj

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 17, 2022