For well over a year, local officials have admonished citizens to fall in line with COVID-19 guidelines handed down by the Centers for Disease Control.
We have been told to stay away from large gatherings, to wear masks, to socially distance and to get vaccinated.
Now it’s high time local officials fall in line with CDC guidelines themselves.
When the Sunflower County Board of Supervisors meet this coming Monday, the board will likely review the COVID emergency order that has been in place since March of 2020.
Large portions - if not all - of this order need to be rescinded, particularly the mask mandate and the limitations on indoor and outdoor gatherings.
It would be perfectly fine for county officials to recommend the continued use of masks and social distancing, but we believe that having this mandate in place clearly puts Sunflower County in conflict with recent CDC guidelines.
This past week, the CDC, with the blessing of President Joe Biden, said that most fully vaccinated people can shed their masks, indoors and outdoors.
This is a clear signal that America is returning to normalcy after over a year of pandemic mandates.
Gov. Tate Reeves was a couple of months ahead of the CDC and most Mississippi counties and municipalities.
He lifted most of the stringent mandates in March and continued dismantling them over the spring.
Most local officials took a wait and see approach to make sure spring activities did not yield a surge like we saw late last summer and again in the winter.
We’ve waited. We’ve seen. So far, no surge.
We will likely see surges of the virus over the next year. This virus is not going away just because we have vaccines to fight it.
In the event there is another surge, local and state officials may be called upon to act in the best interest of our health care system again, but few of the 2020 mandates are relevant at this time.
Individual municipalities within Sunflower County may soon desire to lift many of their own COVID restrictions.
It would be silly for them to do so if everyone still must adhere to a county-wide emergency order.
County officials, you told us over and over to adhere to the guidelines.
Now it’s your turn.
