President Joe Biden on Wednesday condemned states that have repealed Covid-19 restrictions on businesses and revoked resident mask mandates, calling the moves a “big mistake.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, both Republicans, announced on Tuesday that they would allow companies to reopen at 100% capacity and lift mask mandates. Biden’s comments were in response to shouted questions from the press, specifically about the two states.
“Look, I hope everyone realizes by now that these masks make a difference,” Biden told reporters at the White House. “We’re about to fundamentally change the nature of this disease because of how we can get vaccines into people’s arms … The last thing, the last thing we need is Neanderthals thinking, that “In the meantime, everything is fine. Take off your mask. Forget it. “It still matters.”
He added that it is “critical, critical, critical” that government officials “follow the science” and encourage Americans to continue wearing masks and follow all public health guidelines.
“I know you all know that,” Biden told reporters. “I wish some of our elected officials would.”
In response to Biden’s comments, Reeves tweeted that “Mississippians don’t need handlers. As the numbers decrease, they can judge their choices and listen to experts. I think we should trust Americans and not offend.”
In announcing their decisions, Reeves and Abbott both cited the declining number of new Covid-19 cases and the increasing availability of vaccines as reasons for lifting the restrictions. But federal officials have warned that the decline in new cases appears to be winding down and that the emergence of new coronavirus variants could lead to a resurgence.
“It is clear from the recoveries, the vaccinations, the reduced hospitalizations and the safe practices that Texans use, that state mandates are no longer necessary,” Renae Eze, Abbott’s press secretary, said in a statement to CNBC. “We now need to do more to restore livelihoods and normalcy for Texans. The Governor’s focus has been and always will be to protect the lives and livelihood of Texans.”
She added that Texas “has the tools and knowledge to fight Covid-19” and they can make their own decisions. Eze said the “governor was clear by telling the Texans that COVID has not ended and that all Texans must follow medical advice and safe practices” during the pandemic.
Both governors took a similar tone when they made their announcements on Tuesday, saying people should still follow public health guidelines, but statewide mandates are not appropriate. Despite the restrictions being rolled back, some companies in both states have said they still need masking in their stores.
On Monday, before the two governors made their announcements, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state officials against lifting public health restrictions too quickly.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the US reported an average of more than 65,400 new cases per day for the past seven days. That’s well below the peak of about 250,000 new cases the country reported every day in early January, but it’s still well above the infection rate the US saw during the summer when the virus crossed the Solar Belt.
“At this level of cases, with variants spreading, we are about to completely lose the hard-earned soil we’ve extracted,” Walensky said Monday. “With these statistics, I am really concerned that more states are rolling back the exact public health measures we have recommended to protect people from Covid-19.”
“Please hear me clearly: at this level of instances where variants spread, we will completely lose the hard-earned soil we’ve extracted,” she said.