States go own way on Covid rules despite cautions and spreading variants

Despite President Biden’s sharp criticism of Texas and Mississippi for abruptly removing mask mandates, states and cities are aggressively going their own ways on Covid-19 restrictions as they decide when and how to reopen their economies.

The change in presidents has brought nearly diametrical federal responses to the pandemic, but the country is facing a patchwork of rules, state to state and city to city, similar to what was seen when the virus arrived a year ago and during the last months of the Trump administration.

On Thursday alone, two Republican governors chose not to follow Texas’ lead, leaving mask rules in place in Alabama and West Virginia. And in Connecticut, Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, announced that his state would end capacity limits on many businesses, including restaurants, gyms and offices, while keeping a mask mandate in place.

In part, the diverging strategies reflect how the federal government has historically handled public health policy, sharing responsibility with state and local authorities. Disparate approaches may make sense, given the wide variation of coronavirus outbreaks. But if Americans had hoped that the country would exit the pandemic in a more cohesive fashion than it entered it, that has not happened.