When states unmask, we know what happens next
Then, in August, after thousands of cases and hundreds of deaths, Reeves issued a statewide mask mandate — only to lift it again less than two months later. As CNN’s Jake Tapper pointed out to Reeves, who appeared “State of the Union” on Sunday, “You said — quote — ‘it was a very turbulent summer, but we have come out on the other side.’ But then cases began to rise again. And you ultimately went through an even worse surge over the winter. More than 3,000 Mississippians lost their lives.”
This week, Reeves and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) lifted their states’ mask mandates and restrictions on businesses’ operating capacity. Like Reeves, Abbott is relaxing rules once again despite past fiascos: The mask mandate the Texas governor is now lifting was imposed last July after his attempt to “reopen” the state was cut short by skyrocketing case numbers.
At this point, Republican efforts to abandon mask mandates cannot be dismissed as differing views on individual rights. They show instead a determined disregard for Americans’ lives.
The science is clear: As Tapper noted, a new CDC study released last week found case numbers and deaths “slowed significantly” within three weeks of mask mandates being imposed, while eased restrictions on dining increase both cases and deaths.
Still, Reeves argued, the data is working in his favor: “In America, we’re seeing approximately 70,000 cases a day. Mississippi is 1 percent of the U.S. population, and, therefore, we should be seeing about 700 cases a day, if we were on par with the U.S. The fact is, our seven-day average is under 450 cases.”
Second, while Mississippi’s new case numbers are below the national average, the state is 15th in overall covid cases per capita and fifth in deaths. So, while the state’s case totals might look proportionally better than the nation’s, there are plenty of data and studies to suggest that a fully maskless, reopened Mississippi will fall back to ranking among the worst.
There was more misleading to come: Reeves argued that the number of Mississippians in the hospital, in the ICU and/or on ventilators “have plummeted … over the last two months.” But hospitalizations, ICU visits and ventilators usage, like deaths, are lagging indicators, and thus don’t reflect current events or daily case counts.
As for cases, Mississippi — like Texas and the rest of the country — has plateaued since late February. Yes, we’re seeing fewer new cases than the horrible totals around the new year, but both states’ daily averages are similar to the levels seen at the start of the first big surge early last summer.
And it’s that plateau that has led experts like Anthony S. Fauci to call Abbott and Reeves’s decisions to go maskless “ill-advised.”
Perhaps as a result, the governors and their political allies have been busy trying to convert this moment into a fresh round of Biden bashing. Republicans and conservative media fell into line complaining after President Biden described the desire to go without masks as “Neanderthal thinking.”
“What he’s doing is calling us stupid,” said Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), even though Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) did not seem to mind. She stood up for the Neanderthal as “resilient” and “resourceful” without mentioning that the human subspecies is now extinct.
“Unlike President Biden,” Reeves told CNN, “who wants to insult Americans and insult Mississippians, I actually trust Mississippians to make good decisions.”
But it is hard to trust lawmakers who, time and again, push the same misguided policies with the same deadly consequences. A year into this pandemic, we know what protects people and what doesn’t. Pretending otherwise cannot be justified as “standing up for liberty.” It is negligence. Mandate masks again, governors, and save lives.
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