States do battle with Biden administration over COVID lockdowns and mask mandates

Governors in several red states have spoken and have lifted their COVID restrictions on business and school closures, as well as the mask mandate that Biden requested be in effect at least for his first 100 days in office.

Florida and South Dakota led the way in refusing to instigate lockdowns at all, but now Texas, Mississippi, and other states are following suit. The Biden administration isn't happy about it. President Biden said those who were engaging in reopening were partaking in "Neanderthal thinking," while White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki accused the governors of "ignoring the science."

Dr. Anthony Fauci said plainly "it just is inexplicable why you would want to pull back now, I understand the need to want to get back to normality but you're only going to set yourself back if you just completely push aside the public health guidelines particularly when we're dealing with 55-75,000 infections per day in the United States. That's a very high baseline."

But what Fauci and the entire Biden administration is missing are two key factors that make their positions on lockdowns and masking entirely irrelevant: the case, hospitalization, and death counts due to COVID in locked down states is comparable to those in non-locked down states. California and Florida are about the same, even though California is an incredibly young state while Florida's population is more than 20 percent geriatric.

If California, which has been extreme in their lockdown and masking rules, cannot manage to contain the virus, then there is no argument that lockdowns are effective.

Additionally, these are American lives we're talking about on both sides of the lockdown debate. On the one hand, Americans are getting sick and dying due to COVID. On the other, Americans are out of work, unable to care for their families, losing their homes, committing suicide, and being denied an education. If lockdowns don't work, as they appear entirely not to, then keeping the economies of our states closed on the off chance that if we all comply that compliance will be effective is not a logical position.

And people will not comply. We cannot press Americans into subservience to government fallacies any longer. Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida knows this plainly, and the atmosphere in his state is gloriously open and life-like.

DeSantis said at CPAC: "Every Floridian has a right to earn a living," citing the statistics on COVID cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. "Florida got it right and the lockdown states got it wrong."

Texas' Governor Abbott said on March 2 that "Effective next Wednesday, all businesses of any type are allowed to open 100 percent," Abbot proclaimed. "That includes any type of entity in Texas."

New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo, who was given emergency powers by the state legislators that they are now trying to claw back, has given no real indication of when widespread reopening would be permitted to happen. Instead, he metes out allowable capacity percentages and floats plans for vaccine passports.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, who presides over the state with some of the most rigid lockdowns and highest deaths, has called the Texas governor's plans "absolutely reckless," though his efforts have been no better. Due to the effects of the restrictions, they have been worse.

Americans no longer have the time for these elitist leaders who don't even follow their own mandates and restrictions, they no longer have the patience to watch their children, businesses, and families suffer under the weight of these orders.

The more the Biden administration tightens its grip, the more states will slip through its fingers. The federal government should work with the governors, with the American people, to reopen the nation, not continue to demand adherence to mandates and orders that have proven to be ineffective.