How Iowa's Governor Went From Dismissing Mask Mandates to Ordering One Herself
For months, Gov. Kim Reynolds of Iowa saw little need to intervene in the choices of Iowans, who she insisted could make their own decisions about whether to wear a mask to protect against a dangerous pandemic.
“No, I’m not going to mandate masks,” she said this summer, dismissing the order as an unenforceable “feel-good” measure. “I believe in Iowans,” she said again in September. Weeks later, as coronavirus cases climbed precipitously, she stood barefaced onstage at a rally for President Trump and threw “Make America Great Again” hats into a crowd.
But as the virus ravaged her state and hospitals filled to the brink, Ms. Reynolds abruptly reversed herself this week and began requiring masks indoors. She joined a wave of Republican governors who are newly and at times reluctantly wielding the power of their offices as the coronavirus erupts to crisis levels across the United States.
“No one wants to do this,” Ms. Reynolds said in a live address to Iowa, which has the third-highest rate of new cases in the nation. “I don’t want to do this.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/how-iowas-governor-went-from-dismissing-mask-mandates-to-ordering-one-herself/ar-BB1b8t9k?li=BBnb7Kz
Meanwhile Trump continues to hold super spreader events.
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