Editor’s Note: This article is an Opinions piece. It does not reflect the opinions of the Weddington Witness as a whole, nor particularly of the writer themselves. It reflects opinions circulating within the United States on the topic of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address.

On March 1, 2022, President Biden held the 2022 State of the Union Address in the House Chamber, as it was being aired on every news platform imaginable. This event was the first event of Biden’s presidential term where guests were not mandated to wear masks. It was repeated over the several platforms that this event was “perfectly-timed” in regards to the CDC dropping their mask mandate. This was seen as a big step toward the end of the pandemic for Democrats, but for Republicans this mandate drop was seen as questionable and it’s no wonder why. The CDC’s mask mandate was relaxed on the Friday, only three days before the State of the Union address. Now, this raises several  questions. Has our society has magically gained tolerance to COVID-19 or was this planned? If this was planned, then why?

It is no secret that Americans, political views aside, have become annoyed by the presence of COVID-19 and the CDC’s ever changing guidelines. As the average person has become more lax about Covid, political pundits have tried to make it a moral question regarding to the adherence to CDC guidelines. Over the past year, politicians from both parties have shown hypocrisy in their Covid regulation beliefs. As time goes on the finger pointing has gotten worse. One is the overbearing CDC supporter Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who was reported to be celebrating New Year’s in Miami without a mask in sight. Although this scene rightly created controversy which AOC is still ashamed about to this day, this example shows that even politicians who preach about following the CDC’s guidelines for the rest of eternity have become relaxed about Covid. As a response to this aggravation of the years-long pandemic, Biden’s overall approval ratings have fallen to 39% reported in January. This lack of support has pushed COVID onto the table of Biden’s cabinet with a bloody red due date. 

Now is it really a shock that the mask mandates suddenly dropped three days before President Biden’s State of the Union Address? The State of the Union Address just happened to be “perfectly timed” so guests didn’t have to wear masks but this seems very suspicious. One begs to wonder, can this be associated with the ever growing tension between the United States and Russia, especially currently, in which Russia invaded Ukraine? Could this relaxation of mask mandates be preparing Americans for war, or at least for the concept of it? At the end of the day, even if this wasn’t done purposefully, although its appearance of seems questionable, we will never truly be able to know what is going on within White House walls.