There is no signal of widespread COVID-19 mandates within the US. Republicans are warning of them anyway

NEW YORK  — As People fend off a late summer season COVID-19 spike and put together for a recent vaccine rollout, Republicans are elevating acquainted fears that government-issued lockdowns and masks mandates are subsequent.

It’s been a favourite subject amongst among the GOP’s prime presidential contenders. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis instructed reporters that persons are “lurching towards” COVID-19 restrictions and “there must be pushback.” South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott posted on-line that the “radical Left” seeks to carry again college closures and mandates. And former President Donald Trump urged congressional Republicans to cease the Biden administration from bringing again COVID-19 “mandates, lockdowns or restrictions of any type.”

“The unconventional Democrats try exhausting to restart COVID hysteria,” Trump instructed supporters in Speedy Metropolis, South Dakota, throughout a current marketing campaign cease. “I’m wondering why. Is there an election arising by any probability?”

RELATED: Q&A: What it’s good to learn about getting the brand new COVID-19 vaccine

Whereas some particular person faculties and schools have carried out momentary masks necessities, there is no such thing as a signal that anybody in federal or state management is contemplating widespread COVID-19 restrictions, necessities or masks mandates. The administrations of a number of Democratic governors denied that any such strikes are even beneath dialogue. The overriding sentiment is to go away the choices to people.

Former President Donald Trump visits Café du Monde in New Orleans, July 25, 2023. Republicans are responding to a late summer season spike in COVID-19 by elevating acquainted fears that government-issued lockdowns and masks mandates are on the horizon. GOP presidential hopefuls together with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and former President Donald Trump have unfold this narrative. (AP Picture/Gerald Herbert, File) 

“No COVID-19 public well being restrictions or masks necessities are being thought-about by the Murphy administration,” mentioned Christi Peace, spokesperson for New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy.

“There are not any impending mass lockdowns or masks mandates for New Mexico,” mentioned Jodi McGinnis Porter, spokeswoman for the New Mexico Division of Public Well being.

It was largely the identical message from Democratic governors’ workplaces in a number of different states that responded to an inquiry about whether or not any COVID-19 mandates had been into account. That included Connecticut, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan and Oregon.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, made clear his opposition to COVID-19 lockdowns in addition to masks and vaccine mandates when he was campaigning for workplace final 12 months: “That is an space the place I feel of us acquired it mistaken,” he mentioned of faculty and enterprise shutdowns. His workplace echoed the identical sentiment in its response to the AP this week, saying, “The administration’s view is that there is no such thing as a must impose restrictions.”

Within the two most populous Democratic-led states, California and New York, the state well being departments suggest getting the up to date vaccine, however haven’t any necessities for the shot or masks carrying. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul was requested throughout a information convention Wednesday about whether or not she would think about masks or vaccine mandates: “We’re in a spot the place we’re seeing low numbers; not requiring such actions as we speak,” she mentioned.

Elisabeth Shepard, spokesperson for Oregon’s Democratic governor, Tina Kotek, famous that the federal public well being emergency for the virus outbreak led to Could.

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., proper, walks by Casey DeSantis, spouse of GOP rival and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, heart, as he speaks at Rep. Jeff Duncan’s Religion & Freedom BBQ fundraiser, Aug. 28, 2023, in Anderson, S.C. Republicans are responding to a late summer season spike in COVID-19 by elevating acquainted fears that government-issued lockdowns and masks mandates are on the horizon. GOP presidential hopefuls together with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and former President Donald Trump have unfold this narrative within the final week. (AP Picture/Meg Kinnard, File) 

“At present, COVID-19 lockdowns and masks mandates usually are not being mentioned and the governor has no plans to institute these measures,” she mentioned.

Nonetheless, the deceptive narrative has confirmed a handy scare tactic for Republicans of their efforts to woo voters who see Democrats as oppressive leaders concentrating on their freedoms.

The GOP presidential hopefuls hammering this message within the final week be part of a refrain of conservative lawmakers and far-right pundits who’ve spent the final month warning that tyrannical COVID-19 measures are looming.

In August, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones claimed an nameless “high-level supervisor within the TSA” and an unnamed “Border Patrol-connected” supply instructed him that Transportation Safety Administration staff would quickly must put on masks and that COVID-19 lockdowns would return in December.

The U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention mentioned the claims had been “totally false,” however they nonetheless had been amplified by influential Republicans, together with Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, who posted on X that she wrote to the TSA demanding solutions.

Later final month, when a Black liberal arts faculty in Atlanta introduced it had reinstated a brief masks mandate in response to scholar infections, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, posted on X that “People have had sufficient COVID hysteria. WE WILL NOT COMPLY!”

The college, Morris Brown Faculty, has since lifted the requirement however is protecting in place different insurance policies, together with contact tracing and temperature checks on campus.

A number of the outcry from conservatives has been in response to President Joe Biden’s feedback final month on COVID-19’s current uptick, which has led to a rise in hospitalizations and deaths nationwide — although a fraction of what the nation noticed in previous surges.

“As a matter of reality, I signed off this morning on a proposal we have now to current to the Congress a request for added funding for a brand new vaccine that’s essential — that works,” Biden instructed reporters throughout a go to to South Lake Tahoe. “And tentatively — not determined lastly but — tentatively, it is suggested that, it’s going to possible be really useful that everyone get it regardless of whether or not they’ve gotten it earlier than or not.”

The CDC on Tuesday endorsed these new photographs for everybody 6 months and older, and the vaccines might be obtainable at pharmacies, well being facilities and a few physician workplaces as quickly as this week. However a brand new federal vaccine mandate is just not into account, in response to a White Home official who requested anonymity to debate the administration’s pondering.

A federal masks mandate can also be not on the desk.

“To be clear, the rumors of a federal masks mandate usually are not true,” mentioned Jeff Nesbit, assistant secretary for public affairs for Well being and Human Providers. “We now have a spread of instruments for folks to guard themselves from the affect of COVID-19, together with vaccines, at-home testing and coverings. Masking is one in all a number of steps folks could select to take to guard themselves if they need.”

Reinstated masks necessities throughout the nation have up to now been restricted to a handful of native faculties and companies. One instance is a Maryland elementary college that required college students who had been uncovered in a classroom’s outbreak to put on masks at college for 10 days.

However these remoted measures have sparked outrage from conservatives who’ve used them to energise their supporters.

Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio final week unveiled the “Freedom to Breathe Act,” a invoice that may block the federal authorities from imposing masks mandates for home flights, public transit and faculties. His name for unanimous passage of the invoice failed, with Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts calling it a “crimson herring” meant to deflect from the GOP’s prioritization of “gimmicks over folks.”

Greene, the Republican from Georgia, launched a companion invoice within the Home. She has mentioned she received’t vote to keep away from a authorities shutdown except the federal government ends coronavirus mandates, which have already largely been reversed.

Misinformation specialists say there’s a method to Republicans’ foreboding claims about impending mandates: They remind voters of the adverse emotions that they had early within the pandemic — and affiliate these with Democrats.

“Carrying a masks doesn’t must be linked to anxiousness, worry, anger and different robust feelings, however for many individuals it’s,” mentioned Lisa Fazio, a Vanderbilt College psychology professor who research the unfold of false claims. “Nobody needs to return to these emotions, so Republicans try to tie these adverse emotions and recollections to their political opponents.”

In the meantime, among the Republican-led states the place state leaders are railing towards COVID-19 measures have been the toughest hit by the current surge. Information reveals Mississippi had the very best COVID-19 demise price per 10,000 folks within the final week of August.

Early that week, the state’s Republican governor, Tate Reeves, pledged to dam any widespread restrictions, posting on-line that the state would “stay in self-determination, not top-down worry.”

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Related Press information journalist Nicky Forster and writers Joey Cappelletti, Mike Catalini, Sara Cline, Jill Colvin, John Hanna, Susan Haigh, Maysoon Khan, Seung Min Kim, Steve LeBlanc, Morgan Lee, Marc Levy, Lisa Mascaro and Andrew Selsky contributed to this report.

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