Clay Travis & Buck Sexton explain why Philadelphia's mask mandate may be a good sign

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Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association President Ben Fileccia on Philadelphia reinstating indoor mask mandate.

The circumstances around Philadelphia implementing its COVID mask mandate again may actually be a good sign according to the hosts of the "Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show."

Pennsylvania's largest city appeared to act alone months after it and other locales originally rolled back their COVID restrictions, including mask mandates. On Monday, host Buck Sexton noted that the Democrat officials in the city indeed brought back what he called a pointless and onerous restriction. But, he suggested there is a silver lining to the mandate instituted by Mayor James Kenney's health department.

"One good indicator I've seen is that the dominoes did not immediately fall right after Philadelphia's mask mandate [returned]," he said.

Co-host Clay Travis added that "so far" that is at least the case.

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Sexton agreed it may be too soon to tell, but expressed that the fact no major city immediately followed suit shows the appetite for unilateral mandates may finally be losing steam.

"I think it there is concern about people being able to reason through this enough, that after enough pointless suffering – which is what all the masking in the lockdowns was – it was theatrical in its only purpose was to show people ‘we’re doing something,'" Sexton said.

After Philadelphia's announcement, officials from surrounding counties ridiculed the reversal, with a spokesperson for the government of Bucks County – which borders the city to the north – telling a local outlet it never has had nor intends to institute a mandate. 

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Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney (NurPhoto/Getty Images)

At least one city council member, Democrat Allan Domb, suggested the mandate could hurt Philadelphia's economy:

"It’s one thing if the entire country does it, but they aren’t. The suburbs aren’t doing it, either. This just hurts our small businesses," he told the Delaware Valley Journal.

Several Philadelphia businesses also filed a lawsuit in court seeking to rescind the mandate. 

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One of the attorneys involved, Thomas King III, previously successfully knocked down Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf's statewide school mask mandate. 

King said the Philadelphia emergency order "imposed a renegade standard unfound anywhere in the world" – and that it goes against current CDC guidance.