Despite a surging number of coronavirus cases in Georgia, on Wednesday Georgia Governor Brian Kemp issued an executive order that voided the face mask mandates of at least 15 local governments in his state. The decision follows an earlier executive order by Kemp dictating that local governments had no authority to mandate masks.
Kemp’s decision, met immediately with frustration and ridicule, comes at the same time a growing number of states have implemented statewide mask mandates. It also once again puts Georgia in the national spotlight, calling attention to how the controversial Georgia governor has continued to chart his own, oftentimes inexplicable, course through the early months of the pandemic.
Kemp’s order, which came on the same day President Trump visited Atlanta to tout his national infrastructure plans, will affect over 1.4 million Georgia citizens that had been covered by recently implemented local mask orders. Mandatory mask requirements had already been implemented by city and county leadership in Atlanta, Athens, Augusta, Rome, and Savannah, in response to what many perceived as slow action on the state level.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp speaks about the COVID-19 virus during a news conference at the Georgia ... [+]
On Wednesday evening, reaction to Kemp’s announcement ranged from anger to disbelief. For example, Savannah’s mayor, Van Johnson, tweeted a fierce critique of Kemp.
“It is officially official. Governor Kemp does not give a damn about us. Every man and woman for himself/herself. Ignore the science and survive the best you can. In #Savannah, we will continue to keep the faith and follow the science. Masks will continue to be available!”
The most recent decision by Kemp is the latest in a series of questionable calls regarding how the governor has managed his state’s response to the pandemic. Georgia, one of the last states in the nation to impose a statewide shelter-in-place order early in the pandemic, was also one of the first states to reopen in April. Kemp’s decision to reopen the state at the time was met with ridicule by many when he prioritized tattoo parlors, bowling allies and nail salon establishments as among the first businesses that could reopen.
Kemp has also been criticized for clashes with Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms who has taken aggressive actions to slow the spread of the coronavirus in metro Atlanta, the state’s biggest city. Bottoms signed a city-wide executive order last Wednesday, mandating residents in the city wear face masks, an order that Kemp immediately rejected.
What makes Kemp’s decision on Wednesday all the more perplexing is that Georgia, like many states, is seeing a surge in coronavirus cases. On Wednesday, Georgia reported 3,871 new cases and 37 deaths, bringing its total number of confirmed cases to 127,834 and 3,091 fatalities. Wednesday’s case number was the second-highest daily count for the state, and came amidst plans to open additional field hospitals, as hospital capacity and critical care beds across the state begins to be stretched thin. The announcement also came on the same day neighboring Alabama announced a statewide mask mandate.
So what, exactly, is the Georgia governor thinking in making such a seemingly regressive decision? As a close ally of President Trump, Kemp has been very focused on the reopening of the state and endeavoring to build confidence in the resumption of economic activity. No doubt the President’s repeated pleas to do the same may have influenced the governor’s decision, especially on the same day the Trump visited Kemp’s state. But for a conservative politician who has claimed to be a proponent of local rule, particularly on issues such as education and other community-oriented decisions, the governor’s approach to overturning local rule seems both inconsistent and contradictory. Which only makes the governor's most recent order even more confounding.
With the pandemic continuing to accelerate, most of the nation’s leadership, including a large number of Republican governors, has embraced the need to implement more, not less, face mask requirements. But by voiding local requirements regarding masks, Georgia’s governor has seemingly chosen to rely more on wishful thinking than of the insights of local leadership across his state. In doing so, Kemp is headed in a different direction than many Republican leaders, business owners, and a majority of Americans when it comes to masks...
In reverse.
