If not for all of the hyperbole over masks and CDC guidance, I’d look at this and say: so what? If you’ve been fully vaccinated and have no other risks (such as immunosuppression or respiratory conditions), go out and live your life. Dance at weddings like no one is watching, etc etc etc.

Of course, people are watching, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) is one of the voices lecturing everyone about masking up again. That makes Tlaib and this video fair game:

Democrat Rep. Rashida Tlaib partied last night with 100+ maskless people. Dems want your kids stuck in masks at school ALL DAY while they party maskless with their friends. Do not comply! Don’t give 1 more inch. In 2022 we WILL defeat the tyrants! Chip in: https://t.co/FGvUL6PziQ pic.twitter.com/6lg71dtv2f

— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) August 9, 2021

Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who assailed Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) for urging Americans to resist new CDC guidelines, danced without a mask at an indoor wedding in a Michigan county with “substantial” COVID-19 transmission.

Tlaib was captured on video in the Instagram story of Bassam Saleh, a wedding band in Dearborn, Michigan, as she danced and posed for photos at the large indoor gathering Sunday, Fox News reported.

The band tagged the location as Ford Community & Performing Arts Center in Dearborn, a city in Wayne County, which is rated as an orange zone by the CDC, according to the news outlet.

Orange indicates “substantial” transmission, one of two risk categories the agency’s guidelines call for indoor masking for people regardless of their vaccination status.

Just the day before, Tlaib had publicly lashed out at Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) for his call to “resist” the same CDC guidelines Tlaib ignored at the wedding:

The KY Senator is throwing a tantrum as his state is being swallowed whole by this virus, again.

People are getting sick and dying.

98 counties in Kentucky have a high incidence rate of COVID-19.

He needs to put politics aside, and put people first. Start resisting the virus. https://t.co/ZgfqVxN4KL pic.twitter.com/XmLIFvvR23

— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) August 9, 2021

Cases have been ticking sharply upward in Michigan, too. Despite suffering through a second major spike in the spring, the state has again seen rapid transmission in the Delta wave as this CDC chart shows, albeit smaller in scale than the pre-vaccination levels:

The big one-day spike in reported cases (the light blue line) came on August 6, two days before Tlaib’s dance-off at the wedding. The seven-day case average still shows a level lower than most of the pandemic, but that may change over the next few days if reported cases keep going up in Michigan as seen on August 6.

If the curve stays on the lower side, we can probably chalk that up to Michigan’s middling performance on vaccinations and a lot of natural immunity from previous exposures. That itself is part of the point: as we move along, the risk pool is growing smaller and smaller under pressure from both phenomena. Vaccines are now plentiful, which means anyone who wants them can get them on demand. Millions have acquired immunity from previous exposure. The Delta wave appears to be rapidly moving through populations and quickly bringing us to a point where there simply aren’t enough people to sustain the pandemic in the US for much longer.

Some of the vaccinated will choose to mask up anyway, in particular those with sufficient co-morbidities to worry about the risk of a breakthrough infection. (My wife is a transplant patient, so we’re still careful about public places and crowds, but we’re not sheltering in place either.)  But that is their choice, as it should be, and shouldn’t be mandated in an environment where the real solution — vaccines — are plentiful and available to anyone. Not taking one is an assumption of risk on an individual’s part, a choice that shouldn’t burden those who chose to vaccinate and are as protected as they ever will be from COVID-19.

So dance, Rep. Tlaib, dance — and stop lecturing everyone to do what you choose not to do.