Will mask mandates be issued as COVID surges again? ‘Not in Mississippi,’ Reeves says

Some businesses and universities are requiring masks again in areas of the country where cases of COVID-19 are on the rise again, but don’t expect that to happen in Mississippi, Gov. Tate Reeves said Monday.

His answer came in a press release issued Monday, following a report from CBS News called “Is masking coming back?” and media speculation.

“The simple answer to the question being posed by ‘experts’ is: no. We will not return to widespread masking or COVID rules,” Reeves said.

COVID-19 cases are on the rise in Mississippi, yet remain much lower than in the three previous years. Cases began rising in June and for the first time since March, the number of medical visits by people complaining of COVID-like symptoms has surpassed 1,000 a week.

A few people in South Mississippi continue to wear a mask in public and the CBS News article suggests others may want to bring out their masks again during flu and COVID season, including those 65 or older and those who are immunocompromised

An order will not come for Mississippi residents, however.

”“Mississippians will not and should not submit to fear again,” Reeves said.

“In the early days of COVID, there was understandable uncertainty. We did not yet know what we were facing,” he said.

“As the months unfolded, it became clear that there were two pandemics,” he said. “A disease that was easy to spread and that was deadly for many vulnerable people. And a pandemic of fear stoked by ‘the expert class’ that demanded total subjugation of the American people.”

Reeves said those early days of “national unity,” when people, stayed home to slow the spread of the coronavirus, it seemed “ridiculous” that bureaucrats and medical experts were trying to seize power.

“Now, it seems ridiculous to assume they wouldn’t try it again,” he said.

Reeves said those who want to take “extraordinary measures” to protect themselves from getting sick should go ahead and put on their masks in public.

“That is your right and you should do what you think is best.,” he said. “Maybe you’re the smartest of all of us.”

People have the right to make their own decisions in Mississippi, he said — “But we are never going back to 2020.”

“And no matter what pronouncements come down from the Biden/Fauci administration,” he said, “we will go to school, we will go to church, we will go to work, and we will play sports. We will live in self-determination, not top-down fear.”