Dropping Indoor Mask Mandate, New York Joins Blue States Easing Covid Rules

[Shrek]

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/08/us/politics/new-york-mask-mandate.html

Gov. Kathy Hochul will drop New York’s stringent indoor mask mandate on Wednesday, ending a requirement that businesses ask customers for proof of full vaccination or require mask wearing at all times, and marking a turning point in the state’s coronavirus response, according to three people briefed on her decision.

The decision will eliminate a rule that prompted legal and interpersonal clashes over mask wearing, especially in conservative parts of New York. It was set to expire on Thursday and would have required renewing.

Ms. Hochul’s decision will let the mask mandate lapse just as a crushing winter surge in coronavirus cases is finally receding. But it was not yet clear whether the governor would renew or drop a separate mask mandate in New York schools that is set to expire in two weeks.

The easing of New York’s pandemic restrictions on businesses comes as Democratic-led states from New Jersey to California have announced similar moves this week, in a loosely coordinated effort that is the result of months of public-health planning, back-channel discussions and political focus groups that began in the weeks after the November election.

[Dorian Gray]

1. Nothing on schools yet

I suspect that the business mandate will play out and we will see what happens to case numbers before schools play out.

[Scrivener7]

2. Why do this? It isn't stopping anything or hurting any businesses. And when

the next wave comes, the mask mandate will be harder to enforce.

New York is always the spear tip in the new variants. We get them first and worst. We should be keeping up precautions till we know there are no more variants to come.

[Shrek]

3. It's discussed a little later in the article

While the movement to loosen pandemic restrictions began in swing states like Colorado, Pennsylvania and Michigan, its spread to some of the bluest states reflects a country entering a new political phase in the nearly two-year-long pandemic. After years of urging their voters to follow the science, Democrats in the states are moving more quickly to lift restrictions than the Biden administration, which remains scarred after all but declaring victory against the virus last summer only to greet the Delta variant.

Driving these decisions are the growing numbers of voters signaling that they are prepared to live with the virus as it is now, and political calculations about looming midterm elections that already have Democrats on the defensive.

Democrats used their “trust the science” mantra in the pandemic’s early days to project competence and skewer Republicans who were flouting public health guidance, but even the White House now acknowledges the growing gap between public opinion and the advice of the president’s public health advisers.

[Scrivener7]

4. I saw that, but it really is only saying, "We're going to put people in jeopardy

because politics."

Yes, I know there's a vocal "I'm just over this virus" crowd. But there is also a quieter "this virus is not done with US" crowd. And, frankly, we're smarter.