As of now, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota and Texas have lifted mask mandates and are intending to reopen their economies as vaccinations for COVID-19 increase.
President Biden’s administration has expressed that, ideally, states should wait even longer to lift restrictions and work toward normalcy because a premature opening could increase infection and case rates, destroying any progress that the United States has worked towards for the past year.
“We are on the cusp of being able to fundamentally change the nature of this disease,” said Biden. “The last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking that in the meantime everything’s fine, take off your mask, forget it. It still matters.”
Texas, one of the states who has lifted the mandate, is merely 12% vaccinated, just barely starting a compliant 70% needed to reach herd immunity, according to state data.
According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in an interview with CNN, said that the case counts have reached a seven-day plateau, which still does not guarantee the end of the pandemic.
This is not the first time America has debated reopening because of case declination. Back in June of 2020, states decided to reopen merely two months after social distancing was enforced to stop the coronavirus spread.
After this first plateau, which is now influencing state restriction decisions this year, the country experienced a massive surge, a surge that experts are hoping we do not repeat due to mandate lifts and re-openings.
“What we don’t need right now is another surge,” said Fauci on CNN. “Pulling back on all of the public health guidelines that we know work — it’s inexplicable why you’d want to pull back now.”