When even Fox News calls out Ted Cruz, you know he’s done something extra stupid

Ted Cruz said he was only following “CDC guidance” when he flippantly refused a cameraman’s request to wear a mask. So either there’s another CDC we don’t know about issuing public health information, or Cruz is just lying.

The antigay Texas senator was speaking at a press conference when he was asked to put on a mask.

“Would you mind putting a mask on for us?” a cameraman standing near him requested.

“Yeah, when I’m talking to the TV camera, I’m not going to wear a mask,” Cruz said.

“It’d make us feel better,” responded.

And then came Cruz’s sound medical opinions:

“I’m not going to wear a mask and all of us have been immunized,” he said, motioning to the masked group of people behind him.

“So you’re welcome to step away if you like,” he continued. “The whole point of a vaccine–CDC guidance is what we’re following.”

Even Fox News called Cruz out on the fact that vaccinated people are still thought to be able to carry and transmit Covid, as per the CDC.

“The CDC is still saying even if you’ve been vaccinated, you still could be a carrier and then you could pass it on,” Fox’s Dana Perino pointed out during an interview with Cruz.

You can see Cruz’s mask moment, as well as Perino’s response, below:

Dr. Sanjay Gupta later clarified:

“The CDC guidance — and I just pulled it up again because the guidance does change, admittedly — but even if you’ve been fully vaccinated, you need to keep taking precautions in public places, wearing a mask, staying six feet apart, avoiding crowds. So it’s just not the case.”

“I mean, I realize this mirrors a conversation that most of society is having right now in terms of what can you do if you have been fully vaccinated,” said Gupta. “The concern is that for [Cruz], he’s pretty well protected, admittedly, against getting severely ill, requiring hospitalization. I don’t know which vaccine he got, but they’re all pretty good at preventing that. First of all, they’re not perfect. You can still get sick. Also, the big wild card here, as we’ve talked about, are these variants. Even though he should be very well protected against severe illness and hospitalization from the variants, he may not be as well protected against moderate illness, mild illness and the possibility that he could still transmit the virus to somebody else.”

“So when he’s not wearing a mask, he’s potentially putting other people in that room at risk. It’s as simple as that. We’ve been talking about this for months now. That equation doesn’t change yet. When enough people have been vaccinated, when we have reduced viral transmission rates low, that’s when we can start to pull back on this.”