President biden
Joe BidenIntercept chief of staff: minimum wage was not “high priority” for Biden in relief from COVID-19 South Carolina Senate adds firing squad as an alternative method of execution Seth Harris, Obama’s former president, to serve as Biden’s labor consultant: MORE report on Wednesday, they denounced the governors of Texas and Mississippi for lifting restrictions on the coronavirus, calling the measures “Neanderthal thinking”.
“I think it’s a big mistake,” Biden told reporters in the Oval Office when asked about the two states withdrawing their mask mandates and all companies’ capacity limits on Tuesday.
“I hope that now everyone has realized that these masks make a difference,” he added. “We are about to fundamentally change the nature of this disease due to the way we put vaccines in people’s arms.”
He noted that there will be enough vaccines available for all adults in May.
“The last thing we need is for the Neanderthal to think that while it’s okay, take off your mask, forget it,” he said. “It still matters.”
President Biden in Texas and Mississippi suspending his mask orders across the state: “I think it’s a big mistake … It’s critical, critical, critical that they follow science …” pic.twitter.com/ETcTJw04ij
– CSPAN (@cspan) March 3, 2021
“We won’t all be vaccinated until sometime in the summer,” said Biden.
He said people should continue to wear masks, wash their hands and distance themselves from others in the meantime.
“I know you all know that,” he told reporters. “I would like to know that some of our elected officials knew this.”
Biden’s comments mark a major escalation in White House rhetoric. Public health officials earlier in the day reiterated in general terms that now is not the time to lift restrictions, but have avoided naming specific states.
The country is at a precarious time in the course of the pandemic, experts say, with the promise of widespread vaccinations in a few months, raising hopes for a dramatic improvement in the situation by summer.
But experts say continued restrictions on the final stretch are important before vaccines are widely available, especially with the increase in more infectious variants of the virus.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) on Tuesday cited ongoing vaccinations as a reason to suspend the mask’s mandate and all capacity limits.
“We must now do more to restore livelihoods and normalcy for Texans, opening Texas 100 percent,” he said.
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves (R) delivered a similar message on Tuesday.
“Executive orders that interfered in people’s lives were the worst, but the only possible interventions for much of last year,” he tweeted. “Now, we are putting our focus on rapid vaccine distribution. We are going out of the business of telling people what they can and cannot do ”.
Updated at 14:42