South Carolina governor Henry McMaster issued an executive order on Friday, March 5, reversing the mandatory mask order in state buildings and other public buildings, including businesses such as restaurants.
According to The State’s coverage of McMaster’s statements, the order is in response to steadily dropping infection numbers as well as the steadily rising number of administered vaccines. However, the governor did temper this change with advising people to continue wearing masks.
These mixed messages have left both sides unsatisfied, especially considering that the executive order came at the heels of numerous other states conceding and lifting their own mask mandates as well.
According to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental control (SCDHEC), over 1 million first and second doses have been administered out of South Carolina’s approximate population of 5 million. As of the following Monday the 8th, 2.7 million residents became eligible for the vaccine, including teachers and other frontline workers.
Currently, vaccines have only been provided to hospitals and pharmacies to be administered. So although many Winthrop University professors have taken advantage of their new eligibility, there is not a campus-wide system for faculty to receive the vaccine.
Most people who have been vaccinated were administered either Pfizer or Moderna’s two-shot vaccine, although a limited number have been able to secure the single-shot routine from Johnson & Johnson.
Although about 25% of South Carolinians have received the vaccine, COVID-19 is not sufficiently under control to deem mask wearing and other safety measures unnecessary. Although almost all at-risk individuals are eligible for the vaccine by now, only half of that number have actually received it, due to both limited supplies and also vaccine hesitancy.
It’s also worth remembering that none of the vaccines have been 100% effective – severe case prevention has capped out at around 95%, so even if at-risk individuals have been vaccinated, One out of 20 people who are repeatedly exposed to the vaccine will contract it.
This is why it’s simply too early for statewide mask mandates to be rescinded. In addition to people taking the executive order as a cue that it is safe to stop wearing masks, it is also causing many people to relax precautionary measures.
Although Winthrop University has maintained measures around campus and in classes, distancing measures have already started to drop off in social interactions. Around Scholars Walk and the Digiorgio Campus Center, Greek societies and other organizations have already resumed sign-up and information tables, attracting crowds that do not always observe social distancing.
Restaurants and other businesses are no longer required to enforce mask wearing, however as private businesses they retain the legal right to do so. Despite this, according to a Business Insider article, some restaurants are having to close their dining rooms back down to protect their employees from serious harassment and even violence.
A video recorded on March 7 by a San Francisco Uber driver that has since gone viral, depicted the driver being assaulted by three passengers after he asked one of them to put a mask on. He was subjected to racial slurs, had both his mask and phone stolen, and one of the passengers coughed on and pepper-sprayed him.
In an ideal world repealing laws requiring masks might not be an issue. However, since mask mandates were the only measures that had a united legal front, this recent trend of repealing them may undo all of the good that has been done by our healthcare professionals.
Photo by Cooper Beck
