West Virginia Governor Jim Justice (R) expressed doubts in an interview with CNN Thursday about fellow GOP governors in Texas and Mississippi abolishing mask mandates, saying the state would maintain its own restrictions for the time being.
“I’m not going to let this become political football,” Justice told CNN’s John King. “In West Virginia, we want to be careful, we want to be safe, we want to respect the rights of everyone and everything, and we have done the right thing throughout this process.”
During the pandemic, Justice said, “We’ve always listened to the experts and we’ve always let them guide us … we’ve been brave, but we’ve been careful.”
“If we vaccinate more and more, we’ll get rid of the mask. But I don’t really know what the big rush is to get rid of the mask because these masks have many, many lives,” he added. Justice added admits that he and his medical advisers have yet to discuss the abolition of the mask mandate. “If we don’t watch out, we could make mistakes.”
“If we vaccinate more and more, we’ll get rid of the mask. But I don’t really know what the big rush is to get off the mask, because these masks have many, many lives,” said West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice as states begin to lift the mandates of the mask pic.twitter.com/WJoVRRLaDs
– CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) March 4, 2021
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves both announced this week that they will completely lift all state mask mandates and corporate capacity limits. However, major retailers such as Target, CVS Health and Aldi have said they will enforce their own mask requirements even in the states that are reversing mandates.