08 April, 2021

I Didn’t Know this & I Live in Indiana—Talk About Being Buried in Work

Trend: Indiana lifts mask mandate, critics warn "We're not ready" – HotAir

[Governor Holcomb (R-IN)] spoke from his office at the Statehouse and referenced the combination of a steep decline in coronavirus hospitalizations and death rates as well as the number of fully vaccinated people as the basis of his reasoning. The numbers are looking good in Indiana. After a year of the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic in the state, which includes the death of 13,000 people, the governor is hopeful that Indiana is now seeing the “tail end of this pandemic”.

Holcomb isn’t making any claims of victory or encouraging others to just throw caution to the wind when April 6 arrives. He said he’ll continue to wear a mask in public places for the time being. He is following the lead of states like Texas where the governor eases mitigation mandates while giving the authority to local businesses and public officials to keep mandates in place. It is up to individual businesses and local governments to manage their spaces when it comes to mitigation measures.

Great. I get my 2nd dose of the vaccine on the 13th. So by the end of the month I’ll stop wearing my mask any place that I’m allowed to do so.

Critics say it is too soon and worry that what happened in past months will happen again. When Gov. Holcomb lifted some restrictions last fall, the numbers went back up and then spiked.

But some health experts worry it is premature to lift the statewide restrictions, pointing to the steep increase in hospitalizations and deaths the state saw beginning in September after the governor lifted most business restrictions before reinstating crowd limits after winning reelection in November.

“We put a lot of restrictions in place last year, there was some initial hesitation by some parts of the population to comply with some of those orders,” said Brian Dixon, an epidemiologist at Indiana University’s Fairbanks School of Public Health. “And then what we saw in the fall is that rates went up, they skyrocketed because people were not following precautions.”

This is disingenuous to say the least. Yes, there was quite a spike here in Indiana last fall. It coincided with a spike nationwide, though. So, unless Holcomb is to blame for what happened all over the country, blaming his easing of restrictions for what happened in Indiana seems like a stretch.

I look forward to moving back one step closer to normality.

No comments:

Post a Comment