Consider This from NPR - Are States Ending Their Mask Mandates Too Soon?

Episode Date: February 15, 2022

More and more states are loosening their mask mandates as COVID-19 cases fall throughout the country. But the CDC says there isn't enough of a drop with deaths and hospitalizations to warrant this change. This muddled messaging can make it difficult to navigate this current phase of the pandemic. NPR correspondent Mara Liasson explains that while politics have played a role in public health decision making from the beginning of the pandemic, the divide between Republic and Democratic states is starting to close. And NPR science correspondent Rob Stein offers guidance on how to make sense of the ever evolving risk factors for daily life. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail]. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Support for NPR and the following message come from the Kauffman Foundation, providing access to opportunities that help people achieve financial stability, upward mobility, and economic prosperity, regardless of race, gender, or geography. Kauffman.org Jennifer Erickson moved to Harlem in New York City about two weeks ago, and when she recently ventured out to the playground with her two young kids, ages two and five, they all wore masks. We feel more confident with the numbers being down as far as infection rate, but still enough to want to wear masks.

Erickson was one of several New Yorkers who spoke with NPR national correspondent Hansi Lowong about a recent change in New York's public health policy. The state officially lifted its indoor mask mandate for businesses last Thursday. I personally think it's a little premature. Erickson said she'll be more confident once her youngest can get vaccinated. But even still, she hasn't really minded masking up. You know, we hadn't been sick in two years.

So I think I might just continue to wear a mask. I say everybody go by their own judgment. If you feel like you need to protect yourself, protect yourself when entering these stores. Now, James Brown said the state lifting the mask mandate for inside stores and other businesses makes sense to him. He has only ever worn a mask when actually required to do so. People want to feel comfortable while they're shopping. Not everyone has made the mask part of their everyday plan. You will want to feel comfortable while they're shopping. Not everyone has made the mask part of their everyday plan. You will want to have a little bit of freedom, especially for America. But this newfound freedom hasn't been clearly communicated to everyone.

The New York governor, you said, said that? Wow. I didn't know that. Wow. Saurak Khan says he's still seeing a lot of people masked up while shopping, which is technically in line with the CDC's standing guidance. And New York is still requiring masks for public transit, for schools and hospitals. Khan said it's hard to keep up with all the different policies and messaging. A lot of people are just very confused because they politicize this so bad, you know? And people really don't know what to do. And they're starting to just not care anymore. They're starting not to believe anymore.

Consider this. Nothing is easy about living through a constantly changing pandemic. But what has made it even harder and even more stressful is keeping up with the ever-evolving public health messaging. From NPR, I'm Elsa Chang. It's Tuesday, February 15th. This message comes from NPR sponsor, Yogi Tea. Wellness doesn't have to be complicated. In fact, it can be as simple as brewing a delicious cup of yogi tea and taking a moment to let your body and mind unwind. Support your well-being with yogi tea. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today or visit wiseISE.com. T's and C's

apply. It's consider this from NPR. Last week, the CDC reiterated that it is not changing its mask guidance. Our hospitalizations are still high. Our death rates are still high. So as we are encouraged by the current trends, we are not there yet. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky acknowledged that while the decision on mask mandates should be made on a state or local level, by the current trends, we are not there yet. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky acknowledged that while the decision on mask mandates should be made on a state or local level, the CDC's guidance won't change until case numbers are lower.

But the thing is, that guidance on masking has not been all that crystal clear. Like, mask up if you're living in an area with high COVID transmission. Well, that's still pretty much most of the U.S. right now. Or also pay attention to vaccination rates, local hospital capacity and at-risk populations. It's too many things and they haven't told us how to weight those things. Cynthia Bauer is a professor at the University of Maryland who specializes in health literacy and communication.

If there's five things, do I weight each thing one-fifth or 20%, right? And there's another reality going on here. Throughout the pandemic, we have seen the states that would benefit most from strict mandates, like where the vaccination rates are the lowest, those are often the states that are the least willing to require masks. Dr. Jennifer Nezzo is an epidemiologist with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. From a national level, it seems like, you know, in many places, that decision has already been done. And it's sort of like life has gone on. One consistency over the last couple years has been the divide along political lines for how to approach the

pandemic in the U.S. But even that is beginning to shift a little bit, with several blue states also rolling back mask requirements against the guidance of the CDC and White House. My colleague Adrian Florido spoke with NPR national political correspondent Mara Liason about how the messaging around COVID-19 restrictions has been changing and how they're not as split along partisan lines as they once were. So a lot of Democratic states now appear ready to move on from masking restrictions, but the CDC says, according to the data, it's still too soon. Here's CDC Director Rochelle Walensky. I know there will come a time when we move from a phase

of crisis to a point where COVID-19 is not disrupting our daily lives. And as we all look forward to this next step, I want to instill in everyone that moving forward from this pandemic will be a process that's led by our surveillance and our data. Mara, we're used to a divide between Republicans and Democrats on the pandemic, but usually it's the Democrats enforcing public health measures more stringently. So what's changed? Well, I think there is a divide. You've got the White House and the CDC on one side, and then you've got Democratic governors on the other. Really, the president has two competing imperatives here. Remember, he campaigned on listening to the scientists. And so far, the science, the federal science, that's the CDC, is not ready to move, and the president can't throw the CDC under the bus. He also doesn't want to declare victory against the virus too early because he did that last year.

Remember, July 4th was going to be Independence Day and then Delta happened. But on the other hand, Democratic governors, including and the DCCC and many congressional Democrats running for reelection, they're ready to move on because they're hearing from their frustrated voters who are vaccinated and want to get back to normal. Returning to normalcy was one of the bedrock campaign promises that Biden made. So the Biden administration, I think, is really struggling to make the transition to the new normal. The new normal will be not trying to get to COVID zero when you're trying to eliminate all infections. The new normal will be keeping hospitalizations and deaths low, getting daily life back to normal with COVID in the background. But in the end, this will be a judgment call, whether it's for a governor or for the president. That's why it's called public health. It's not just science in a

vacuum. You have to account for human behavior and the economy and the mental health effects of masks on little kids, those decisions will be made. And these public officials will be judged by voters on how they handle this, the decisions they make. How could that play out? Well, that's a good question. You know, Republicans were against masks because of ideology and a distrust of experts and science. Democrats now are coming slowly to the conclusion that maybe we

don't need mask requirements based on science and the progression of the pandemic. So who wins the political battle? Republicans want voters to be angry at Democrats for keeping the mask mandates on for so long. Biden shifted over the last year from trying to unify everyone and bring them along voluntarily to imposing mandates, or at least trying to, and then blaming Republicans who question vaccines for undermining the effort to get COVID under control. We don't know which side will be successful. But we do know that when you have a low-trust, highly polarized society like ours, people don't do the thing that's good for everyone. Getting vaccinated is the right thing to do. Countries in Europe are way over 90% vaccinated without mandates because they have high trust societies.

And that's just not the situation we have here. That was NPR national political correspondent Mara Liason. Aside from the politics, this is a disorienting time when it comes to making sense of our own personal risk. States are loosening mandates while more than 2,200 people are still dying every day from this virus. My co-host Mary Louise Kelly spoke with NPR health correspondent Rob Stein about how to sort through this uncertainty. So all these optimistic messages, easing of restrictions, but then at the national level, public health officials are still sounding so cautious. How are we supposed to make sense of it? Yeah, you know, I don't know about you, Mayor Louise,

but I'm finding this a very discombobulating moment. And, you know, all I've been doing for the last two years is spend my days dissecting every twist and turn in the pandemic. But one moment, it seems like everyone is kind of getting on with their lives and putting the pandemic behind them. The next moment, it feels like Omicron and whatever variant may come next means it's still far from safe out there. So, you know, I don't know what to do. So I do what I do. And I started calling the experts, you know, psychologists, hopefully, sociologists, medical anthropologists, to try to figure out what to think. And here's what Ayelet Fishbeck said.

She's a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago. You wake up in the morning and you wonder, maybe we are over it and no one told me, or maybe it is terrible and I should not do my shopping in person. It's very confusing. So, you know, Fishbeck says it's not surprising that a lot of us don't know what to think or do. Wear my mask, stop wearing my mask, and maybe even feeling more anxious than ever because of it. It's almost reassuring to hear that the officials and experts are confused as well. I mean, part of it is what she's getting at, you know, the conflicting advice, wear my mask, don't wear my mask,

just tell me. Is that part of the problem here? Yeah, yeah, that's a big part of the problem. You know, no one seems to be on the same page, and the advice, it seems to change all the time. Monica Shoxpana is a medical anthropologist at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. The sense that you're standing on shifting sands does put you in an awkward situation about what do I do or what don't I do? And what they told me yesterday may be different from what they're telling me today. And she says that's compounded by the fact that a pandemic is unlike other traumatic events like natural disasters. There's no obvious beginning, middle, and end, and there are no obvious cues we can judge for ourselves to assess the risk. Think of, you know, a massive hurricane in the Gulf Coast. There's the storm surge,

there's the winds blowing, the battering a glass window. And then as things are getting better, you can see the debris getting picked up. And so the invisibility of the pathogen is a problem. And we're left to kind of figure things out for ourselves, but not with much clear guidance out there. Well, let me make a stand here, Rob, for optimism. Assuming the Omicron surge continues to fade, assuming the pandemic continues this transition to endemic, won't it get better? Won't that help?

Yeah, you know, that might help us get back to something more like a normal existence. But, you know, we're nowhere near the pandemic becoming endemic yet. And even when it does, and if it does, the virus won't be gone. It'll still be with us, infecting and sickening and killing people. It'll hopefully just be more manageable, but we will still have to navigate day-to-day decisions about risk. And that could easily vary over time and in different, you know, seasons. And, you know, there's always the ongoing threat of new variants. That was NPR health correspondent Rob Stein.

You're listening to Consider This from NPR. I'm Elsa Chang.