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On April 6, United States Senate member Ted Cruz responded to Hollywood and wrestling star Mr. T's opinion about continuing to wear masks after receiving his second booster shot. On Wednesday, Mr. T (Lawrence Tureaud) took to his Twitter to advocate wearing masks and maintaining social distance.
In his tweet, Tureaud revealed that he received his second booster dose of the COVID vaccine from Moderna. The A-Team star also mentioned that he felt good after the dose.
Accompanying the tweet with his famed phrase and grunt, he further wrote:
"I am still going to wear my mask and keep my distance because the virus ain't over, Fool! Grrr."
Ted Cruz's response to Mr. T's tweet about still wearing masks
Following Mr. T's initial tweet, Cruz labeled the actor's points as "Bizarre." He further cited that over 500 members of the US congress had meetings without masks following the relaxation of the mandate of wearing masks in some states. The 51-year-old politician made a connection to the congress members' lack of wearing masks and wrote that "it's still not good enough for Hollywood."
Since February, the removal of the mask-wearing mandate by the CDC in most states has been a heated topic of debate, which was reignited over Ted Cruz's response to Mr. T. On February 25, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky announced the implementation of new guidelines and said:
"We want to give people a break from things like mask-wearing."
Following the announcement, most US states did not renew the mandate of wearing masks. In most states, the mandates have expired in March and April. However, some states are yet to remove it, while others have converted the mandate into an advisory.
Meanwhile, amid rising Omicron variant cases, the FDA approved a second booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or the Moderna COVID-19 vaccines. Around the end of March, the second booster dose was announced to be available to "individuals 50 years of age and older" or immunocompromised patients.
However, an Israeli study concluded that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine's second booster dose only provides protection from the Omicron variant for a short time period. This sparked further debate on the efficacy of the second booster shot against the new variant.
Ted Cruz faces massive backlash after his mocking response to Mr. T's opinion about wearing masks
Several netizens were quick to target Cruz over his tweets aimed at Mr. T. Numerous tweets supported Mr. T and argued that it was the 69-year-old's personal right to wear masks.
Meanwhile, some tweets hilariously demanded a physical fight between Mr. T and Ted Cruz.
