Fauci says he’s baffled at Texas, Mississippi lifting mask mandates. ‘Inexplicable’
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, slammed Texas and Mississippi for loosening COVID-19 restrictions, including mask mandates.
Fauci, chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden, said Wednesday that lifting mask mandates “is really quite risky” during a town hall by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.
“That’s a dangerous sign because when that has happened in the past, when you pull back on measures of public health, invariably you’ve seen a surge back up,” Fauci said.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, announced Tuesday that he’s lifting the state’s mask mandate, and businesses and facilities have the option to operate at 100% capacity. The executive orders will go into effect Mar. 10.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves made a similar announcement on Tuesday, tweeting that the state’s mask mandates will be lifted and businesses can choose to operate at 100% capacity effective Wednesday.
“Starting tomorrow, we are lifting all of our county mask mandates and businesses will be able to operate at full capacity without any state-imposed rules. Our hospitalizations and case numbers have plummeted, and the vaccine is being rapidly distributed. It is time!” Reeves wrote.
Fauci also said in a CNN interview on Wednesday that rolling back coronavirus restrictions is “ill-advised.”
“Just pulling back on all of the public-health guidelines that we know work — and if you take a look at the curve, we know it works — it’s just inexplicable why you would want to pull back now.”
Texas has seen a rise in daily coronavirus cases in the past week, with an average of 7,253 cases per day, an increase of 6% from the average two weeks prior, The New York Times reported. Deaths have also increased 16% over that period.
Mississippi has seen a decline in daily cases in the past week, the Times reported.. The state has an average of 541 reported cases per day in the past week, a decline of 33% from the average two weeks earlier. Deaths decreased 12% over that two-week period.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned against relaxing restrictions amid falling COVID-19 case counts in recent weeks.
“Please hear me clearly: At this level of cases with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard earned ground we have gained,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said Monday.
As of March 4, more than 518,000 people in the U.S. have died from the coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University, and more than 28.7 million infections have been reported nationwide.
