Governor Cox says delay in Utah mask mandate was a mistake

SALT LAKE CITY – Governor Spencer Cox was optimistic and excited about Utah’s prospects for ending the pandemic during Thursday’s COVID-19 weekly press conference. But the newly elected head of state argued that while the future is bright, things could have turned out better had the state implemented a mask mandate earlier.

“Sometimes we did it right and sometimes we got it wrong,” he said. “We made other mistakes earlier by not making masks, by not making them mandatory sooner, which could have helped and possibly saved lives.”

Former Governor Gary Herbert was keen to implement a statewide mask order for months after the pandemic began and did not give in until after a huge surge of cases before Thanksgiving in November . At the time, Cox had just won the gubernatorial election and still held his role as lieutenant governor as well as head of the state’s coronavirus task force.

“In retrospect, we should have and probably could have prescribed it,” Cox said Thursday.

While the state did not have an official mask warrant until late fall, Herbert, Cox and other officials recommended the use of a face mask and produced 2 million masks at distribute to those who needed it.

“Many of us have been right about the issues with this pandemic and many of us have been wrong at different times,” Cox said Thursday, highlighting the balance officials are facing as new information comes in. revealed.

In March 2020, face covers were not yet a political issue, and health officials and agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, urged residents not to wear them.

CDC guidelines at the time advised against wearing headgear, saying medical supplies should be preserved for frontline hospital staff and the blanket would do little to prevent the spread. But in April 2020, once the asymptomatic spread was better understood, the CDC updated its guidelines to advise every resident of the United States to wear a face mask.

“We’ve learned a lot about masks,” Cox said. “We learned more about the effectiveness of the masks.”

Since the early response to the pandemic, several studies have shown data to support wearing masks to be an effective way to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, which is spread through respiratory droplets.

Likewise, several models developed by experts and scientists predicted that COVID-19 cases in the country would peak dramatically in March before a decrease in cases was observed. In Utah, the number of cases and the positivity rate have started to decline in recent weeks as the number of vaccines continues to rise.

“It doesn’t mean they’re bad people, it doesn’t mean they’re bad scientists, it doesn’t mean they don’t know what they’re doing; it just means that things have changed. , “Cox said.

To date, a total of 660,444 doses of vaccine have been administered to Utahns, nearly doubling the total number of COVID-19 cases seen since the start of the pandemic to 369,433. A total of 1,890 Utahns have died from COVID- 19 and 14,597 were hospitalized, according to the Utah Department of Health.

The two-dose Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are currently available to eligible Utahns in the state, with availability of Johnson and Johnson’s single-dose vaccine expected in the coming days.

Overall, Cox was extremely optimistic about the state’s future with the pandemic, saying that by the summer he hoped to be maskless on a July 4 parade. He predicted that by the end of April or early May, there will be enough doses of the vaccine available for every adult in Utah who wants to receive one.

As long as there is low transmission after the majority vaccination, Cox believes the masks will not be needed sooner than expected. That prediction could change, and if it does, the governor said the state will adjust its response.

Despite leaders’ past mistakes, Cox emphasized the importance of showing the light at the end of the tunnel. Officials don’t always have the perfect answer and the hindsight is 2020, he added.

“Sometimes we’re not quite right, and (the masks) was probably one where we could have done it a little bit earlier,” Cox said.

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