“What would be helpful from the White House is consistency in their recommendations and their actions,” said Matt Kelley, health officer for the Gallatin City-County Health Department. “It’s one thing to make a recommendation to state and local health officials to fine people. It’s made more difficult to do that when we have the vice president coming here to a rally where no one, very few people, were wearing masks.”
During a press call last week, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock said he didn’t plan to follow the White House advice to punish those without masks. The Democrat, who is running for Senate, said it’s better to encourage people to use masks than rely on fines.
But Bullock said the point of the White House’s request was clear. “Even the federal government says we need to be taking wearing masks seriously,” he said. “It’s not just governors saying that we should do this and it’s not just health experts saying we should be wearing masks.”
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson is among the Republican governors who have resisted a statewide masking order, despite the White House’s recommendation.
“You don’t need government to tell you to wear a dang mask,” Parson said in July at a Missouri Cattlemen’s Association steak fry, according to the Springfield News-Leader. “If you want to wear a dang mask, wear a mask.”
Parson and his wife, Teresa, tested positive for COVID-19 last Wednesday.
Spokesperson Kelli Jones said last Thursday that the governor does not plan to enact a mask order, based on an assessment of current COVID data. She added state officials consider the White House reports “really more of an FYI” than a mandate.
“It’s kind of a bizarre document, truthfully,” she said. “We read them and look at them — and make our own policy.”
The reports, which are sent to the governors, also leave local and state public health officials in the dark, said Freeman, of NACCHO.
“If the White House were truly serious about making these — what sounds like solid, scientific-backed, data-backed recommendations — if they were truly serious about it, tell the world, share them, be transparent,” she said.
Instead, former CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden said, the White House has fueled the partisan breakdown on masks.
“One of the many failures of this administration is the politicization of masks, and that has really cost lives,” Frieden said. “There is no reason masks should be partisan.”
Meanwhile back in Montana, Gallatin County appears to be heading toward its third surge in cases since the pandemic began.
“I don’t really have a lot of time to worry about inconsistency of messaging from the White House,” health officer Kelley said.
The county now has outbreaks in nursing homes and several confirmed cases in schools, he said, and the county’s positivity rate is heading toward 10%.
Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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