GOP governors ignoring Biden on masks
President Joe Biden’s pleas for states to stick with mask mandates to slow the spread of the coronavirus were being largely ignored Tuesday as several Republican governors stayed on track to drop the requirement in their states.
Biden and the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said a day earlier that this is no time to relax safety measures.
In a call with governors Tuesday, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky buttressed that message by citing “concerning” national trends: The seven-day average of 61,000 new COVID-19 cases per day is up 13 percent, and the seven-day average of deaths is up 6 percent.
But Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchison announced Tuesday he is dropping the state’s mask mandate immediately, a day earlier than previously announced.
“We made our decision in Arkansas based upon the criteria we set,” said the Republican, who last month set targets for test positivity and hospitalizations in order for the state’s requirement to expire. “This is a goal we had. We achieved that, so we stuck with the principle that was outlined.”
The number of new reported cases in Arkansas was 79 on Monday, according to the CDC, part of a downward trend.
On the other end of the spectrum, Michigan has seen a steep rise in cases. That prompted Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to ask whether the White House has considered surging additional vaccines to states with rapidly increasing infection rates.
Jeffrey Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, replied that officials are “thinking through how to address hot spots.” He promised to do everything to support Michigan in its “difficult situation.”
Staying the course is a “tough message” to communicate, White House press secretary Jen Psaki acknowledged.
“It’s important for people to hear that we’re still in a war with this virus, and people still need to be vigilant in order to return to normal,” Psaki told reporters Tuesday.
As more vaccines are deployed — with the nation on track to deliver 200 million doses overall by Wednesday — whether to enforce the wearing of masks has become the latest partisan focal point in the battle against the virus.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey intends for her state’s mask mandate to end April 9 as planned, though she urged people to wear masks as a matter of personal responsibility.
“We have made progress, and we are moving towards personal responsibility and common sense, not endless government mandates,” said Gina Maiola, Ivey’s spokeswoman.
The Republican-controlled Arizona Senate voted Monday to rescind its mandatory mask policy, and the House speaker made the same move on his own authority.
That action comes on the heels of Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey’s move last week to lift remaining restrictions to curb the virus. The Republican’s executive order allows businesses to enforce mask mandates and distancing requirements if they want, but cities, towns and counties must lift theirs.
Scott Gottlieb, a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner under former President Donald Trump, said a surge of cases hitting Europe does not mean that a similar spike in infections will also happen in the U.S.
“Everything that happened in Europe eventually happened here. Now I think the tables have turned. We’re ahead of Europe,” Gottlieb told CNBC, citing higher immunity in the United States due to vaccinations and previous infections. He is a board member of Pfizer, which makes a COVID-19 vaccine.