Starkville residents react to governor’s executive order, Aldermen’s decision
Earlier this week on Tuesday, Gov. Tate Reeves announced he would be lifting the state-imposed mask mandates and removing COVID-19 related restrictions on businesses across Mississippi effective Wednesday.
This means cities and counties were no longer required by state executive order to have mask mandates, but they could still impose such mandates in their area as they pleased.
That night, the Starkville
Board of Aldermen voted 5-2 to retain its existing mask mandate, which sparked a variety of reactions within the community.
One Starkville resident said the Aldermen should have lifted its mask mandate, claiming that it simply has been long enough and numbers are down enough.
“My thing is that the numbers are clearly down enough to lift the mandate, otherwise the governor wouldn’t have done that. I think there have been enough vaccines shot into arms that even if cases rise, it wouldn’t matter because there are that many people with the vaccine already,” they said. “Here’s the thing, COVID is not going anywhere. It’s going to be here for the rest of our lives like the flu. It’s just another thing we’ll have seasons for. I think now that we have all of these vaccines, we’ve got this thing under control. Don’t get me wrong, people can still wear a mask if that makes them feel safe, but don’t force us to do so if other towns are not.”
Another Starkville resident expressed their thoughts and they, unlike the first concerned citizen, believe the Aldermen made the right decision for the time being.
“I think what the governor did on Tuesday was a sign that we are making a lot of progress instead of the pandemic being over. He clearly advised that we keep wearing masks and follow the CDC guidelines, it’s just no longer required by the state. With that said, I think the Aldermen made the right decision for now,” they said. “I don’t think that we need to stop wearing the masks yet be
cause they clearly work. I think in about a month or two, the mandate will be lifted then. But we’re not out of the woods yet, I don’t think at least. We just need to be patient just a little bit longer.”
For Starkville business owners like Carolyn Abadie, owner of Book Mart and Café on Main Street, she is going to continue to wear her mask along with her employees and customers.
“We are going to listen to the CDC as well as the governor and our mayor. For right now, we’re going to continue with the mask mandate in the store until we hear differently. I can see us getting rid of the masks but still keeping the social distancing going on along with washing our hands regularly just to be safe,” said Abadie. “Sure, it’s frustrating. One day you’ll hear Dr. [Anthony] Fauci say to not wear a mask, the next day he’ll say to wear mask, the next day he’ll say no mask, the next day he’ll say three masks, so I don’t have a whole lot of faith in him. But I do think that the numbers have gone down with the masks on. You know we had that ice storm issue two weeks ago, and we were all couped up at home for an entire week. I’m thinking they may have looked at those numbers, which wouldn’t be very reflective of what’s really going on. I think we’re just going to kind of see how things shape out, keep staying safe here in the store, and just see what happens.”
In the wake of Gov. Reeves’ lifting of the statewide mandate, Mississippi State University announced they would be keeping their mandate for the remainder of the spring semester.
“I’m fine with the university keeping [the mask mandate]. I mean, we started off this school year with it, so we might as well finish with it,” said MSU student Hasten Wren. “We, as students, never expected things to go back to normal within the school year. I’m tired of the masks but we’re already halfway through this semester with them so we just might as well finish.”
Walker Phillips is an MSU student like Wren and he does not exactly agree with keeping the mask mandate, but he can see why it is necessary.
“From the university’s perspective, I see how the standards they set at the beginning of the year are being continued and you definitely don’t want another outbreak happening within the school,” said Phillips. “I also understand that the public’s perception on a college town is that we are a hotbed for coronavirus even though that is not the case when you look at our numbers from the last semester and a half. Even coming from a college student’s perspective, I do see us being looked down upon because it feels like we can’t be trusted sometimes. We have our own little island on Mississippi State’s campus not having much coronavirus. But with it being a popular town with people coming in and out a lot, I can see where their reasoning is coming from by waiting until the end of the semester and restarting the next school year.”
For medical professionals like Emily Landrum of The Family Clinic, wearing masks are very important to combating COVID-19, despite how frustrated they make us and how tired we are of them.
“I definitely think we should keep it in place for the time being, especially if we’re going to see different establishments return to more of a full capacity scenario. I think that’s going to be really important in gradually returning to normal. I think, ultimately, the mask mandate should be the last thing to go as we move down that path,” said Landrum. “I think what we’ve learned in the last year is that wearing a mask isn’t all that bad, in my opinion at least. I’ve been doing it every day, pretty much all day, for at least a year now. It’s really a simple thing that we can continue to do to avoid moving backwards in the pandemic. I know we’re all frustrated with them; we’re coming up on springtime and everyone wants to start doing more things; but the risk that we take if we just completely go back to normal, no masks, no distancing, establishments at 100 percent capacity, we may see those cases begin to rise again and that is only just going to prolong the process of us being able to return to normal.”
Landrum also said that the vaccines along with continuing to wear masks and being cautious of our social interactions are very important pieces of the puzzle
The Starkville Board of Aldermen will meet on March 16 in City Hall at 5:30 p.m. and will likely address the status of the city’s need of a mask mandate.