The difference in coronavirus-related mask orders between Florida and Alabama was clearly illustrated during last weekend’s Mullet Toss, an event that historically straddles the state line and has long embraced the term “interstate.”
But this year, for the first time in the event’s 35-year history, attendees flung dead fish only on the Florida side of the famed Flora-Bama beachside bar. None of the event’s activities were held in Alabama where a “Safer at Home” order still requires people to wear face coverings and businesses to operate with social distancing.
“We’re the only tent set up (in Alabama),” said Adam Chapman, 36, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, pointing to where his crew of friends were assembled on the Alabama side of the Flora-Bama. “With all the complications with this, with (Hurricane) Sally and everything, we’re appreciative of this.”
Less than two weeks before Alabama’s latest Covid-19 health order expires on November 8, pressure continues on whether conservative Alabama will fall in line with surrounding states and lift some of the restrictions. Florida, led by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, OK’d a return of normalcy for restaurants and bars in September by allowing them to operate at full capacity (the previous orders limited capacity to 50%). Florida has no mask mandate.
Public health officials and political scientists believe the only thing keeping Alabama from becoming like Florida – where restrictions are essentially removed, despite soaring increases in Covid-19 cases – is Ivey’s order requiring people to wear a face covering.
“Governor Ivey has been out in the lead with regard to our neighbors,” said Thomas Shaw, associate professor in the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice at the University of South Alabama.
‘Powerful’ mandate
With Covid-19 fatigue settling in, Republican governors in states near Alabama are loosening restrictions. Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee, in late September, lifted capacity restrictions on all businesses and on gatherings in all non-metro counties. Alabama, according to its orders, has a 50% capacity restriction in place for businesses and restaurants and bars are to continue operating by placing a six-foot separation between tables.
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Georgia has never had a statewide mask mandate, but the state does have restrictive policy on the capacity of restaurants and bars. The state’s current health orders expire on Halloween.
In Mississippi, Republican Gov. Tate Reeves allowed the state’s blanket mask mandate to expire on September 30, citing a decline in cases. Face coverings are still required at schools and “close contact personal care services” like hair salons. Reeves has since announced a mask requirement for 16 counties amid increases of coronavirus cases, as well as a limit on the number of people gathering in the same place at one time.
Ivey’s office is aware of the fatigue that has spread nationwide over coronavirus. Her office, in an email to AL.com, said thanked Alabamians for “stepping up and doing their part to help curb the spread” of the novel coronavirus, while the public awaits a vaccine. According to spokeswoman Gina Maiola, the “ultimate goal” for Ivey is to “lift the mask mandate and continue easing restrictions.”
Said Maiola, “She is hopeful we are in the final stretch of this virus, and as we enter flu season, we cannot lose steam,” she said. “Let’s keep doing our part by wearing a mask, social distancing and practicing the recommended protocols. Governor Ivey wants to see this in our rearview mirror sooner, rather than later.”
Maiola said that Ivey and Dr. Scott Harris, the state’s Health Officer, will continue to keep an eye on the state’s progress and will provide an update ahead of November 8.
“Governor Ivey absolutely wants to see our state move forward,” said Maiola.
Alabama continues to experience a rise in coronavirus cases, and the recent uptick is setting new standards in hospitalizations. The state added 1,296 Covid-19 cases on Tuesday and a whopping 1,001 hospitalizations, marking the first-time daily hospitalizations eclipsed 1,000 since the end of August.
Covid-19 cases are escalating nationwide, and the U.S. has reached a new seven-day high this past week by tacking on an additional 500,000 cases. According to Reuters, 44 states have experienced a rise in new cases within the past week, and 36 states have experiences increases over the past two weeks. Cases have reached record levels in more than 20 states, including Tennessee, according to The New York Times.
“We’re still seeing 1,000 new cases every day,” said Dr. Jodi Dionne-Odom, assistant professor of infectious disease at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, referring to Alabama. “Fatigue is everywhere. We all want it to be over. We’ve come such a long way since March. We wished we were in a better place. But we need to be realistic and look at the community transmission we are seeing in Alabama and say that we are not there yet, and we can’t relax our guard.”
Dionne-Odom credits Alabama’s mask mandate for pushing the cases downward in July after it was implemented by Ivey. She said the mandate remains a powerful tool in keeping people protected.
A lot of businesses take them seriously and they want to follow the letter of the law," Dionne-Odom said. “That’s why the mandates are so powerful. They can say that this is the law and we follow the law.”
‘Peer pressure’
Ivey continues to get criticized for the mandate. On social media, recent posts about Hurricane Zeta were followed up mostly with comments from critics howling against the mask mandate.
Republican leaders are also not fans of the mandate. Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth, who returned to work Wednesday after being out sick following a positive Covid-19 diagnosis, remains opposed to mandating that people wear a face covering.
Republican governors elsewhere in the U.S. have remained opposed to mandating mask wearing even if their states experience a surge in cases. Republican governors in North and South Dakota have refused to implement mask mandates even as their states become Covid-19 hotspots. In South Dakota, the leaders of the state’s medical association are urging people to wear face masks in public while Gov. Kristi Noen continues to express skepticism about their effectiveness when worn out in public. In Iowa, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds has also refused to implement strict guidelines to reign in her state’s rising number of coronavirus cases.
Shaw, the professor at USA, said he doesn’t see Ivey bending on her position despite what other Republicans may say or do. He said that “peer pressure” is not affecting Ivey’s role in overseeing Alabama during the pandemic.
“There has been a lot of pressure from the outset,” he said. “Definitely, the political climate is what it is, and in states like Florida, you would think the virus doesn’t exist anymore as far as regulations go.” In Florida, 27,893 people were diagnosed with Covid-19 in the past week, which is the most in any seven-day period since late August and led to a group of doctors to blast DeSantis for his loosening of restrictions.
People stand for the Pledge of Allegiance ahead of a campaign rally with President Donald Trump in Pensacola, Fla., Friday, Oct. 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)AP
The handling of the virus has been politicized heading into the November 3 elections. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has criticized President Donald Trump’s Administration on its handling of the virus that has killed more than 227,000 Americans since the pandemic began earlier this year. Trump, during campaign rallies, claims the situation with the virus is under control and that people are recovering after they get sick. Trump’s rallies, including one in Pensacola last Friday, have been outdoors but social distancing and mask wearing among attendees has been limited.
Few Trump supporters (24%) view the coronavirus outbreak as a “very important” voting issue, according to a Pew Research Center report, while a whopping eight-in-10 Biden supporters (82%) say the virus is very important to their vote. Among the issues polled in the Pew analysis – health care, Supreme Court appointments, foreign policy, abortion, etc. – the coronavirus featured the widest differences in importance among supporters of the two camps.
Dionne-Odom, at UAB, said it’s “confusing” to have leaders delivering mixed messaging on coronavirus, adding that the public’s “understanding of the virus is changing over time.” She said that attitude toward masks and their effectiveness to contain the virus has become more well-known by medical experts since the pandemic began in March.
She said that it’s “rare” to have such a useful tool in combating the spread of infectious disease by blocking the particles that can spread through the air that lead to virus infection.
“Everyone is tired of this,” she said. “Nationwide, the mask use is 50%. But if we got it up to 90%, we can save 100,000 lives.”
All eyes on Ivey
In Alabama, some cities have hinted that they are waiting to take their cues from Ivey before proceeding with festivals and other events that draw large crowds where social distancing is difficult.
During a recent Fairhope City Council meeting, questions surfaced on whether the city could proceed with holiday-related events like a Christmas parade in December and a Veterans Day parade next month. The Christmas parade, so far, is scheduled to take place but the Veterans Day parade is canceled.
Councilman Kevin Boone suggested that the “unless the governor says we can’t have” the parades, then the city would proceed with them and that “it’s every many for himself and let’s have a parade.”
Said Boone, “Unless the governor says I can’t do it, I’ll do it. I’ll let the governor be the scrooge.”
Ivey’s position on the mask mandate has prompted some speculation that the 76-year-old governor won’t be running for re-election in 2022.
Brent Buchanan, a Montgomery-based GOP pollster who was Ivey’s campaign manager during 2018, said the public shouldn’t “count Governor Ivey out from running for another term.” He credited Ivey for “doing an awesome job leading through a global crisis and has been able to balance public health and economic interests.”
Buchanan points to Texas as evidence that other Republican-controlled states have a mask mandate in effect and supported by the public. Polling from last summer showed that Texans overwhelmingly approve of Gov. Greg Abbot’s mandate.
Shaw, at USA, conducted polling in Mobile in June ahead of the city’s mask mandate that was instituted before Ivey enacted the statewide mandate. He said the poll, which was done in conjunction with the city of Mobile, showed that 58 of people in the community admitted to wearing a mask most, if not all, of the time. But the same poll showed that only 5% of health professionals in Mobile admitted to seeing people wearing masks most, if not all, of the time.
Shaw said he anticipates Ivey maintaining the status quo when the “Safer at Home” order is extended. He noted that in Alabama, there hasn’t been “very public” displays of opposition to the mandate as there has been in other states that are run by Democratic governors.
“Chances are, I don’t think she bends to the pressure of this situation,” he said. “She’s already extended the order twice now, and given the medical evidence suggests (masks help reduce virus spread) and that we seeing a big influx in new cases … she will stick by having that order in place.”
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