Dozens of House GOP reps urge Pelosi to drop masking rules following revised CDC guidance

"It is time to update our own workplace regulations."

Nearly three dozen House GOP representatives this week urged Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to formally drop the House's strict mask mandate, citing recently updated masking guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the Friday letter, issued from the office of Ohio Rep. Bob Gibbs, 34 Republicans "urge[d] [Pelosi] to immediately return to normal voting procedures and end mandatory mask requirements in the House of Representatives."

"CDC guidance states fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear a mask or physically distance in any setting except where required by governmental or workplace mandate," the letter declares. "It is time to update our own workplace regulations. Every member of Congress has had the opportunity to be vaccinated, and you have indicated about 75 percent have taken advantage of this opportunity."

"The United States Congress must serve as a model to show the country we can resume normal life through vaccination," the letter concludes. "Let’s follow the science and get back to work."

Following the CDC's revised mask guidelines this week, multiple state governors as well as multiple national retailers declared they would be loosening their mask rules for vaccinated residents and consumers.

https://justthenews.com/government/congress/dozens-house-gop-reps-urge-pelosi-drop-masking-rules-following-revised-cdc

Kids should stay masked in schools despite new rules for vaccinated adults: CDC

Sorry, kids, no bare faces for you.

Schools should continue to require face masks “at all times, by all people in school facilities” for the rest of the academic year, according to updated CDC guidance issued Saturday.

But coming after the agency proclaimed this week that adults vaccinated against COVID-19 can safely ditch their face coverings, the unchanged rule threatened to add even more confusion as the nation grappling with a hodgepodge of mask messages.

Strict rules requiring mask use and physical distancing should remain in schools nationwide “regardless of the level of community transmission” of coronavirus, the CDC insisted.

That’s because “students will not be fully vaccinated by the end of the 2020-2021 school year,” the document explained. In addition, it said, school systems will need time to make “systems and policy adjustments” relating to their mask rules.

No coronavirus vaccine has yet been authorized for children under age 12, and the Pfizer two-dose jab won approval for 12-to-15-year-olds just days ago — not enough time before the school year ends for full immunity to kick in.

In addition, mask rules should be followed by school administrators, teachers and visitors, even if they are fully vaccinated — to “encourage modeling of correct and consistent mask use” for students, the agency said.

The CDC decision was in line with Dr. Anthony Fauci’s Thursday comment that masking for kids should continue.

“The children do [need masks] when they’re out there playing with their friends, particularly in an indoor situation, they do,” Fauci told CNN.

The CDC will update its schools guidance in the coming weeks to help districts prepare for the coming academic year, it said.

https://nypost.com/2021/05/15/school-kids-should-stay-masked-despite-new-rules-for-vaccinated-adults-cdc/

Meet The Bank Of America Exec Accused Of Ruling Through COVID With An "Iron Fist"

Thomas K. Montag, Bank of America's second in command, oversees about 17,000 people and still gets thing done in an "old school" kind of way.

Such was the topic of a new profile on Montag, that highlighted his business practices as inclusive of favoritism and "ruling with an iron fist", according to the New York Times.

Montage was born in Portland, Oregon and started his career in 1985 at Goldman Sachs. He was a former offensive tackle for his high school football team before going on to work in swaps at a Goldman trading desk. In 2008, he joined Merrill Lynch to run its markets division, and was soon put in charge of the merger between B of A and Merrill. Anne Finucane, Bank of America’s vice chairman said: “The early days were certainly rocky, but he made it work.”

But divisions that Montag was in charge of "blossomed" and spoke to his ability to cultivate large clients. Some of his employees, however, found his expectations unreasonable:

On Friday afternoons over the years, after the markets had closed, Mr. Montag sometimes sought out floor managers at their desks, current and former employees said, leaving Post-it notes scrawled with the words, “Where are you?” if they weren’t around.

Montag would also routinely clip or add to bonuses for reasons that weren't clear, at the last minute, employees said. Those who got additional bonuses were known as "FOT" or friends of Tom.

One FOT was Gene Reilly, a hedge-fund manager who worked for him as Bank of America’s global head of quantitative trading in the early 2010s. He told the NYT: “Tom really cares about people in an old school way that’s not typical in today’s corporate world. Whether a colleague needs heart surgery or someone’s parent is dying in the hospital, Tom makes the phone call and helps anyway he can.”

His old school style has led to sexual harassment within his divisions, however. "Montag’s divisions confidentially settled about 15 complaints annually" from employees who made "credible allegations of misconduct or a toxic work environment". Bank of America spokeswoman Jessica Oppenheim called the number "grossly inaccurate".

And the profile specifically takes exception with Montag's handling of the pandemic - he was insistent in his employees still showing up to the office during the beginnings of Covid. These employees called themselves "warriors" who referred to those who stayed home as "tapped out". At the time, "some of Mr. Montag’s workers grew fearful that if they didn’t go into the office, they would lose their jobs or their bonuses," the report says. Those who didn't show up were put on something called the "can't be bothered" list - an idea he first developed in 2014 as "an annual roster of employees whose bonuses would be docked because they did not carry out administrative tasks such as participating in colleague performance reviews."

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/meet-bank-america-exec-who-ruled-through-covid-iron-fist