Uh … yes? Like the entire rest of the country is?

It seems to have escaped Nancy’s attention that the CDC’s new vaccine guidance does amount to calling for an honor system on masks. States and cities can avoid that by keeping their mask mandates in place, but the CDC made that hard for them to justify doing that when it declared that vaccinated people no longer need to mask up indoors. They could also avoid it by instituting a system of vaccine passports in which only the vaccinated are allowed entry to certain public spaces. But the Biden White House has said repeatedly it won’t push that idea and it seems to be widely agreed upon that it’s a nonstarter politically in most places.

So if mask mandates are no longer tenable thanks to the CDC’s “take ’em off!” decree and vaccine passports are DOA due to political realities, what’s the alternative to letting everyone share the same space and putting the unvaccinated on the honor system about whether they’ve had their shots or not?

Pelosi says unvaccinated people in the Capitol are "selfishly" endangering others who work there

"What is this, the honor system? The honor system as to whether somebody has been vaccinated? Do you want them breathing in your face on the strength of their honor?" pic.twitter.com/PWm6Z9RYGw

— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 20, 2021

There’s a hint at the end about Pelosi knowing that certain members have health issues that might make it risky for them to be around unvaccinated people even though they’ve been vaccinated themselves. But someone facing that sort of risk shouldn’t be on the floor at all, even if everyone else is wearing masks. Masks aren’t foolproof. Someone who’s immunocompromised is better off voting remotely or using the gallery upstairs.

Because, let’s hopefully all agree, it should be a priority for Congress to model the CDC’s new guidance by ditching their masks at the first available opportunity. A majority of the House has now been vaccinated and those with special health risks can take extra precautions to protect themselves. So why not end the restrictions for everyone and have a big “look at us getting back to normal after we got our shots!” celebration for the cameras? Listen to Mariannette Miller-Meeks, the new Republican member from Iowa and an M.D.:

"Nancy Pelosi wants to fine the science, not follow the science." @RepMMM, a doctor and former public health official, joined @FoxNews to call on Speaker Pelosi to lift the mask mandate and encourage more Americans to get vaccinated. pic.twitter.com/aDClyfB6V1

— Winning For Women (@WinningForWomen) May 20, 2021

“We could be a show of normalcy of what would happen if you got vaccinated.” They could be. Why aren’t they?

Either Pelosi’s on a pure power trip, viewing this as a test of wills with the MAGA caucus, or she’s trying to use the mask mandate to pressure vaccination holdouts among House Republicans to go get their shots. Either way, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Thomas Massie, and Ralph Norman have reportedly all now been fined $500 for a first violation of the mandate after initially being warned. (Lauren Boebert and Louie Gohmert were seen masking up today after their warnings, according to Forbes.) A third offense will cost $2,500, a meaningful fraction of a member’s salary. Greene and Boebert are reacting in their characteristically trollish way:

This is what I think of Speaker Pelosi’s letter. #FreeYourFace pic.twitter.com/9uujzmtCCP

— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) May 19, 2021

Nancy Pelosi can kiss my mask.https://t.co/DYaPWJMwrS

— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) May 20, 2021

The best argument I can think of for why the House should continue to mask up despite having more than 50 percent vaccinated is that it’s a body with an unusually high number of geriatrics. We don’t want the olds around unvaccinated people; they can still be infected if they’re vaccinated, after all, and although they’re very unlikely to have a bad outcome, they’re surely more likely than a younger person who’s been vaccinated. If that’s Pelosi’s reasoning, though, she should say so forthrightly — and she should note that the CDC didn’t make any firm distinctions involving age in its recent guidance. Either she trusts the vaccines or she doesn’t. Does she?