Democratic state, mayors divided in COVID mandates as country recovers from pandemic

Some state and local Democratic leaders are starting to change mood COVID-19 mask and vaccine mandates; others do not.

As the initial spike in the omicron version of COVID-19 dwindles before spring, some mayors and Democrat governors are repealing rules requiring people to show evidence of vaccination at local businesses, wear masks indoors or send children to school in masks.

“It is clear that these various non-pharmaceutical interventions, which have never been well established since their introduction about two years ago, simply did not work,” said Doug Badger, a senior fellow at the Conservative Center’s Department of Home Affairs. -tank The Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital.

Denver is among the first

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock was one of the first to lift the restrictions when he announced Jan. 31 that the city would not continue an emergency order that provides masks and vaccination evidence for entry into the Denver business.

“After extensive discussions with our regional partners … and reducing the trajectory of cases, positivity and hospitalization, Denver will not expand our health care order,” Hancock said at the time. “It’s been an incredibly difficult two years for all of us. We need a little less anger and intrusion and a little more understanding of people for each other. ”

As of Feb. 26, Denver schools will no longer require students to wear masks.

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Mayors of other major cities, including Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser; New York Mayor Eric Adams; Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot; and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Corsetti has not yet released similar statements.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said last Tuesday that the city would reconsider its mandates on vaccines as soon as there are fewer than 200 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 a day, according to MassLive.

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Kickbacks across the country

But some governors are taking a nationwide approach to ending emergency orders.

Last Monday, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced that schoolchildren and staff will no longer be required to wear masks starting March 7, after he extended the order in January. Also last Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that from next week state residents will no longer have to hide indoors. The governors of New York, Illinois, Connecticut, Oregon and Delaware have made similar plans to abolish mask mandates.

Phil Murphy, then a Democratic candidate for governor of New Jersey, arrives to vote in Middletown, New Jersey, on November 7, 2017.
(Reuters)

Badger noted that while he is not sure that former New York Governor Andrew Cuoma “could deliver [Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis’ policies in New York, no more than Governor DeSanthis’s, could put Cuomo’s policies in Florida into effect, ”he said, adding that the independent experience of the states speaks for itself.

“If different claims about masks, distancing, blocking and everything else gave clearly different results in the states where they were tried, we could argue that a single approach would be better. But the experience was completely different,” he said. “And I think that’s why you’re starting to see that even the governors who were very supportive of the restrictions and implemented the restrictions are quickly backing away from them.”

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The same levels of infection

Most revoking leaders are calling for lower COVID-19 cases and high levels of vaccination, but Badger says other states that have never had those mandates have experienced similar outbreaks of infection and hospitalization in the past two years since the initial outbreak in spring 2020. year.

“Communities, states and cities that had mandates and different restrictions suffered from the same level of COVID infection and hospitalization as states, counties and municipalities that did not impose these restrictions,” Badger explained.

“And it’s not just the United States. You can look at Israel, Denmark, Britain, France, Spain – all countries with higher vaccination rates than the US, and tougher national restrictions than the US, and as a result they got higher levels of population-based infection than the United States. “

A child wears a face mask on the first day of New York City schools amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Brooklyn, New York, September 13, 2021.
(Reuters)

A recent study published by Johns Hopkins University shows that pandemic restrictions such as blocking and non-pharmaceutical interventions such as mask mandates “had little or no effect on mortality from COVID-19”.

In addition, the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in January that tissue masks, commonly worn by many Americans, provide minimum amount of protection. The Mayo Clinic In late December, it was stated that patients and visitors could no longer wear only a tissue mask and should have medical coverage for the face. While they recognized that some fabric masks can provide adequate protection, many types of masks that are commonly worn have not.

Meanwhile, the CDC is the only health agency in the world that recommends masks for 2-year-olds.

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Badger pointed to the politicization of the virus as the reason that state leaders and local authorities are just beginning to lift restrictions, noting that 70% of Americans want to adopt COVID-19 and continue living, according to Monmouth University poll published Jan. 31.

“If you politicize things and start saying it’s an unvaccinated pandemic, and unvaccinated people are pushing sick patients out of hospital beds, you’re not convincing unvaccinated people to get vaccinated. That’s pretty clear,” Badger said. “But you deepen divisions, heavy feelings and skepticism about what health authorities are advising to do.”

Ron Blitzer of Fox News contributed to this report.