The campaign to prop up masking may properly be called a misinformation spree; the evidence that ordinary cloth masks do any significant amount of good is somewhere between unconvincing and nonexistent. Yet after Mississippi and Texas dropped Covid restrictions in March, Biden said, “The last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking in the meantime: ‘Everything’s fine, take off your masks.’ . . . It’s critical, critical, critical that they follow the science.”

Following the science didn’t lead to the conclusion that the kinds of masks most people wear are effective. As study after study cast doubt on the efficacy of cloth masks, CNN expert Dr. Leana Wen admitted, “Cloth masks are little more than facial decoration,” and former FDA chief Scott Gottlieb said, “A cloth mask is not going to protect you from a virus that spreads through airborne transmission,” though it might protect you from other viruses that spread primarily via the droplets associated with coughing and sneezing.

Yet the CDC, which is known to allow its recommendations to be corrupted by the influence of hyper-fearful teachers unions, continues to recommend that kids wear masks in school, which is taken as an edict by many Democrat-run cities and states. This is a cruel and ineffective response to an almost-nonexistent problem.