With coronavirus waning as a concern in the minds of the American people, those most invested in virtue signaling about it have taken their efforts up a notch. Whether that’s the media, who consistently stoke unfounded fear, or the woke sports leagues that have clearly dipped their toe into politics the last several months, the narrative continues.

Enter the mask police, who have turned wearing a largely ineffective, usually poorly used piece of cloth on one’s face into a fetish. As I’ve written before, there’s precious little evidence masks as a general societal tool do much of anything to stop the spread (see The Case for Masks Just Took Another Body Blow). The correlation just doesn’t exist.

But MLB has decided to jump the shark anyway. Yesterday, a GM up in his box, with no one within hundreds of feet of him, was ejected from a game by an ump on the field. Why? Because he wasn’t wearing a mask.

Yes, this is real life.

Did Joe West actually stop the game to throw out the Nats GM for not wearing a mask?? pic.twitter.com/Awm8rmdecP

— Gump Cathcart (@bubbagumpino) September 6, 2020

If you know about MLB’s Joe West, you know the guy is a total clown who shouldn’t have a job. Regardless, this is pretty unbelievable. Why is an umpire concerned with a man not wearing a mask? Much less a man who is not near anyone?

Forgetting about the global trends (or lack thereof) when it comes to the effectiveness of mask usage, note that we live in a country where mask-wearing on a state by state basis has also been shown to not be a big factor. And while social distancing may delay the spread, though it doesn’t stop it, masks don’t even appear to do that. There are many reasons for this. In some respects, masks are just not that effective outside of a professional medical setting. Why? Because most people 1) don’t have the right masks 2) don’t use them properly 3) don’t sanitize them properly and 4) don’t recognize what risks they can and can’t mitigate.

Joe West’s move here is just stupid. It’s nonsensical, political virtue signaling. I’m sure he felt really good after making the ejection, but there’s zero science behind what he did. Maybe one day this insanity will stop, but as long as some find it politically beneficial, it’ll continue.

(Please follow me on Twitter! @bonchieredstate)