Biden administration cautions that rolling back mask restrictions are premature

Biden administration cautions that rolling back mask restrictions¹ are premature²

Transcript³

More states run by Democratic governors have announced plans to ease masking policies, including in schools. But the federal government is still urging caution.

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

I'll be flying back home to California soon. California's a Democratic-led state that has pretty strict COVID rules but now plans to ease some of those measures. And several other blue states are doing the same thing - easing masking policies, including in schools. But the federal government is urging caution. Here's White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JEN PSAKI: What our responsibility to do is to abide⁴ by what the president committed to on the campaign, which is to listen to scientists, listen to data. That doesn't move at the speed of politics. It moves at the speed of data.

MARTINEZ: We're going to take the next few minutes to dig in - first to the politics with NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson, and then to what this all means for schoolkids with NPR education correspondent Anya Kamenetz. Good morning to both of you. Mara, you're going to lead us off here because Democrats⁵ have been steadfast⁶ about public health measures to control the pandemic, but we're seeing Democratic governors more each day moving out ahead of the CDC. What is happening here?

MARA LIASSON, BYLINE⁷: What's happening is the virus is declining, at least as measured by the number of hospitalizations and deaths. And even cases, although they're still high, are also coming down. So you see one after another, all these governors - New Jersey⁸, Connecticut, Delaware, California, New York, Illinois, Oregon, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Washington state - they're all easing some of their requirements. That means they're going to leave the question about mandates¹⁰ up to local officials. And they're hearing from their voters. In these states, the voters are mostly vaccinated¹¹. The voters say COVID's here to stay, and they want to get back to normal life, which, by the way, was one of the most important promises Biden made on the campaign trail - this return to normalcy.

And this is different than the defiance¹² to mask mandates from Republicans, who are against masks because of ideology¹³ or distrust of science and experts. Republicans say they're coming to this conclusion based on science and the progression of the pandemic. Meanwhile, at the White House, the press secretary said yesterday people should still follow the CDC guidance that they keep masks on indoors. But the CDC said yesterday that they're reviewing this data. So it's possible the White House will catch up to these governors pretty soon.

MARTINEZ: Now, last year, President Biden, Mara, talked about freedom from the coronavirus, only to see it surge back. So how is the White House talking about where the country is headed?

LIASSON: Well, there's really two competing imperatives¹⁴ for Biden. He campaigned on listening to the science. The science, in the form of the CDC, says they're not ready to move yet. He can't really throw the CDC under the bus. He doesn't want to declare too victory - declare victory too early. As you said, he tried that last year, and it failed. He doesn't want to have a premature, mission-accomplished movement - moment. But - so he's struggling to make the transition to the new normal, and the new normal would be not trying to get to COVID-zero, where you're trying to eliminate all infections, but just trying to keep hospitalizations and deaths low and get daily life back to normal if you are vaccinated.

MARTINEZ: And unfortunately, Mara, we all know this - much of what goes on with COVID response is also very political. So how do you think the two sides are positioning themselves with voters in all of this?

LIASSON: Well, Republicans are hoping that voters will be mad at Democrats for having the mandates in the first place and keeping them on as long as they did. Democrats are hoping that voters will reward them for taking science into account. You know, the president shifted over the last year from trying to unify¹⁵ everyone, bring them along voluntarily, to placing some mandates and then blaming Republicans, who he said questioned vaccines¹⁶, undermined local regulations. Democrats will argue that Republicans prolonged the pandemic by resisting vaccines and masks. So we don't know which side will prevail, but there's no doubt that this entire pandemic - masks, vaccines, et cetera - has become politicized.

MARTINEZ: All right. Now to schools with NPR's Anya Kamenetz. In Pennsylvania, the mask mandate⁹ expired recently - Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Oregon all lifting theirs in the coming weeks and months. Anya, so what are the reactions from school districts?

ANYA KAMENETZ, BYLINE: Well, their lives have just gotten harder, right? So states are getting out ahead of the CDC, as Mara mentioned, so there's essentially¹⁷ no guidance here, even in Massachusetts, which is a state where previously¹⁸ they actually had a clear masking offramp. They used to say if 4 out of 5 of your staff or students are vaccinated, you can take the masks off. Well, that's now out the window. It's anything goes. And so what governors have essentially done here is they pushed this decision down to individual school districts. And we know, from seeing it unfold previously in red states, that's going to mean contentious¹⁹ school board meetings, protests and very different policies in neighboring districts.

MARTINEZ: So, Anya, what are you hearing from educators?

KAMENETZ: You know, we've reported throughout the year about burnout and staff shortages among educators, and feeling unsafe in your workplace probably might not help if they are - they're not in favor of taking off the masks. On the other hand, perhaps surprisingly, Randi Weingarten, the head of one of the national teachers unions, was on MSNBC this week saying she's in favor of an offramp to masking and that teachers actually don't want them anymore. Although she wants to see the masks come off tied to clear metrics, and that is not what's happening here.

MARTINEZ: What about parents and students? How are they responding?

KAMENETZ: It's so complex. You know, some parents are jumping for joy and others are terrified. The most recent national polls - these were during the height of the omicron surge - show most parents actually do support requiring masks for students, and that support notably²⁰ is higher among Asian American parents. You know, if you wait a few weeks and children experience actually taking off the masks, cases are still going down, that opinion might shift.

But I do want to mention the communities that have been carrying a higher burden throughout this pandemic - the frontline workers, those with multigenerational households, those who've been experiencing more serious disease and more lives lost. They might be the exact same communities who feel endangered by this shift in this moment. So the real challenge is, how can schools and politicians build trust and confidence with more vulnerable communities that school's still going to be safe, and whether that's through, you know, tools like testing, better ventilation or vaccination²¹ campaigns or all of the above?

MARTINEZ: NPR's Anya Kamenetz and Mara Liasson. Thanks, you two.

KAMENETZ: Thanks.

LIASSON: Thank you.

1 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

2 premature   

adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的

参考例句：

• It is yet premature to predict the possible outcome of the dialogue.预言这次对话可能有什么结果为时尚早。
• The premature baby is doing well.那个早产的婴儿很健康。

3 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

4 abide   

vi.遵守；坚持；vt.忍受

参考例句：

• You must abide by the results of your mistakes.你必须承担你的错误所造成的后果。
• If you join the club,you have to abide by its rules.如果你参加俱乐部，你就得遵守它的规章。

5 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 steadfast   

adj.固定的，不变的，不动摇的；忠实的；坚贞不移的

参考例句：

• Her steadfast belief never left her for one moment.她坚定的信仰从未动摇过。
• He succeeded in his studies by dint of steadfast application.由于坚持不懈的努力他获得了学业上的成功。

7 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

8 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

9 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。

10 mandates   

托管（mandate的第三人称单数形式）

参考例句：

• Individual mandates would require all people to purchase health insurance. 个人托管要求所有人都要购买健康保险。
• While I agree with those benefits, I'm not a supporter of mandates. 我同意上述好处，我不是授权软件的支持者。

11 vaccinated   

[医]已接种的，种痘的，接种过疫菌的

参考例句：

• I was vaccinated against tetanus. 我接种了破伤风疫苗。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child? 你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？

12 defiance   

n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗

参考例句：

• He climbed the ladder in defiance of the warning.他无视警告爬上了那架梯子。
• He slammed the door in a spirit of defiance.他以挑衅性的态度把门砰地一下关上。

13 ideology   

n.意识形态，(政治或社会的)思想意识

参考例句：

• The ideology has great influence in the world.这种思想体系在世界上有很大的影响。
• The ideal is to strike a medium between ideology and inspiration.我的理想是在意识思想和灵感鼓动之间找到一个折衷。

14 imperatives   

n.必要的事( imperative的名词复数 )；祈使语气；必须履行的责任

参考例句：

• Nixon, however, had other imperatives. 但尼克松另有需要。 来自辞典例句
• There could be some cultural imperatives in there somewhere! 在公共传播那里，在某些方面，可能有更迫切的文化需要！ 来自互联网

15 unify   

vt.使联合，统一；使相同，使一致

参考例句：

• How can we unify such scattered islands into a nation?我们怎么才能把如此分散的岛屿统一成一个国家呢？
• It is difficult to imagine how the North and South could ever agree on a formula to unify the divided peninsula.很难想象南北双方在统一半岛的方案上究竟怎样才能达成一致。

16 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

17 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

18 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

19 contentious   

adj.好辩的，善争吵的

参考例句：

• She was really not of the contentious fighting sort.她委实不是好吵好闹的人。
• Since then they have tended to steer clear of contentious issues.从那时起，他们总想方设法避开有争议的问题。

20 notably   

adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地

参考例句：

• Many students were absent,notably the monitor.许多学生缺席，特别是连班长也没来。
• A notably short,silver-haired man,he plays basketball with his staff several times a week.他个子明显较为矮小，一头银发，每周都会和他的员工一起打几次篮球。

21 vaccination   

n.接种疫苗，种痘

参考例句：

• Vaccination is a preventive against smallpox.种痘是预防天花的方法。
• Doctors suggest getting a tetanus vaccination every ten years.医生建议每十年注射一次破伤风疫苗。