U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a bipartisan meeting on cancer legislation at the White House Oval Office in Washington on March 3, 2021.
Alex Brandon | Swimming pool | Reuters
President Joe Biden on Wednesday criticized states that revoked restrictions on Covid-19 companies and terminated mask warrants for residents, and called the moves a “big mistake.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, Republicans, announced Tuesday that they would allow companies to reopen 100% of capacity and lift mask mandates. Biden’s statements responded to questions asked by the press specifically about the two states.
“Look, I hope everyone has noticed that these masks make a difference,” Biden told White House reporters. “We are on the cusp of being able to fundamentally change the nature of this disease because of the way we can get vaccines in people’s arms … The last, last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking, which “In the meantime, everything is fine. Take off your mask. Forget it. “It still matters.”
He added that it is “critical, critical” that state officials “follow 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 the hell some of our elected officials did that.”
In response to Biden’s statements, Reeves tweeted that “Mississippi people don’t need managers. As numbers dwindle, they can evaluate their decisions and listen to experts. I guess we should only trust Americans and not insult -the bear”.
In announcing their decisions, Reeves and Abbott cited the decline in the number of new cases of Covid-19 and the increase in vaccine availability as reasons to end the restrictions. But federal officials have been warning that the fall in new cases appears to be stagnating and that the emergence of new coronavirus variants could lead to a resurgence.
Abbott’s representatives did not immediately return CNBC’s request for comment.
Both governors set a similar tone in making their announcements Tuesday, saying people should follow public health guidelines, but statewide mandates are not appropriate. Despite the reversal of restrictions, some companies in both states have said they will 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, warned state officials to lift public health restrictions too quickly.
Over the past seven days, the U.S. has reported an average of more than 65,400 new cases daily, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. It is well below the maximum of about 250,000 new cases reported daily by the country in early January, but it is still well above the rate of infection seen by the United States during the summer when the virus swept the solar belt.
“At this level of cases, with the spread of variants, we are completely losing ground,” Walensky said Monday. “With these statistics, I’m really concerned that more states are pushing back exactly the public health measures we’ve recommended to protect people from Covid-19.”
“Please listen to me clearly: at this level of cases with extending variants, we are completely losing the hard-won ground,” he said.