It is easy to make the rules—but it is difficult to follow them. When Super Bowl LVI was hosted in the freshly minted SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California last weekend, the stadium announced it was going to hand out KN95 masks to all attendees—fans would be required to wear the masks throughout the game. 

However, regardless of the local mandate, a majority of attendees did not wear masks—even the politicians and celebrities who support mask and vaccine mandates, CNN reports. This double standard was also seen at the Met Gala which took place in September, Deadline reports. 

As California begins to ease restrictions and mandates due to decreasing rates of COVID-19 cases, bitterness lingers in Americans who are fed up with the hypocrisy from politicians and celebrities throughout the pandemic. Twitter lit up with tweets from fans who were upset about children having to wear masks when adults at these events did not. The insincerity has not changed throughout the pandemic as influencers, celebrities and politicians continue to defy their own principles. 

DOUBLE STANDARDS HURT

“My students all have to wear masks all day [Monday], inside and outside of their classrooms because we are in LA County,” wrote one Twitter user, ABC7 reports. Mask mandates are still in effect in Los Angeles County, especially in schools and settings with large numbers of attendees. 

Eric Garcetti, mayor of Los Angeles, recently said he was “holding his breath” during a photo while taking pictures with people at SoFi. “I wore my mask the entire game and when people asked for a photograph, I hold my breath and I put [my mask] here and people could see that,” Garcetti said. “There’s a zero percent chance of infection from that.” 

Podcaster Eric Matheny took to Twitter to voice his dissatisfaction on the evident wealth disparity involved with the double standards. “Apparently COVID can’t touch you if you drop five-grand on Super Bowl tickets. But tomorrow morning, school children – for whom COVID is nearly 100% survivable – will wear masks for eight hours. Science,” he said. 

BEGINNING OF THE END

As California begins to lift restrictions, it seems like the end of the pandemic may be arriving sooner than later. While the state is easing restrictions, L.A. County is maintaining its mask mandate which means Biola University will have to keep its indoor mandate. 

Watching celebrities and politicians who have pushed COVID-19 restrictions and have even shamed those who do not agree with them is exhausting. While restrictions begin to ease, there remains a bitterness in the air between those with influence and authority and those without. The hypocrisy surrounding masks will hopefully end as the restrictions do.