Governor’s lack of leadership on masks and public health puts Idaho economy at risk

During Thursday’s press conference on the coronavirus, Idaho Gov. Brad Little was asked what message he would have for Idahoans who aren’t wearing masks.

“Wear your mask. Next question,” he said, dismissively.

Leadership, especially in times of crisis, must come from the top.

Unfortunately, too many decisions about the coronavirus pandemic in Idaho are being pushed down to others, and the message coming from the governor about wearing a mask in public is just too weak.

We understand that there are different circumstances in different parts of the state. We appreciate that what is necessary in Boise may not be necessary in Salmon or Arco.

Regardless, Idaho needs leadership from our governor.

Local decision makers, from school board and health district board members, county commissioners and city council members, are all looking to the governor for strong leadership. Idahoans who are leaving the house right now and deciding whether to put on a mask need leadership.

They’re not getting it.

To his credit, Little wore a mask himself, as he has many times before. And he might have thought that “Wear a mask. Next question” would be seen as a strong, simple and clear statement. It also is clear now that Idaho reopened Ada County too quickly. Just as it is clear that the so-called “champions of freedom” champion neither the use of masks nor the inconvenience of temporarily mandating masks to save lives.

It’s clear that those forces are noisy in the GOP, and Little doesn’t want a showdown. It’s clear that Little doesn’t want to cross swords, either, with President Trump, whose popularity with Idaho’s right wing remains strong — and who never wears a mask, setting a terrible example as the virus keeps wreaking havoc.

It’s clear that threading this needle is beyond Little’s ability. His comment came across as disrespectful of the questioner and halfhearted about the cause. That’s not leadership.

We understand reluctance for a statewide mask mandate. Many of Idaho’s counties still have few cases. But Ada and Canyon counties need one — and so, possibly, do Twin Falls, Blaine, Jerome, Cassia, Minidoka and Washington counties, where the rate of reported COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people is higher than Ada’s.

An attitude of “everyone for themselves” doesn’t work in a pandemic. We continue to kid ourselves that “Idahoans will do the right thing,” as the governor has said repeatedly. Unfortunately, many of our fellow citizens are still not doing the right thing.

We’ve illustrated well enough by now, and more and more research and evidence shows, that masks help stop the spread of COVID-19. A study published June 27 in The Lancet shows the risk of infection decreases by 65% to the person who wears a face mask.

Goldman Sachs published an economic study last week that says wearing masks is the best thing people can do to boost the economy. If we truly want Idaho’s economy to come back, if we truly want to reopen schools safely in just a couple of months, everyone needs to wear a mask — and wear it correctly — in public, practice social distancing, wash their hands and limit out-of-household social interactions to the outdoors.

A lack of leadership from the top is evidenced by what’s happening in the Treasure Valley right now. It’s a tale of two counties — Ada and Canyon.

The Central District Health Department rightly moved Ada County back to Stage 3 on June 22, recognizing a spike in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations.

Neighboring Canyon County is in another health district, Southwest District Health, which chose to keep Canyon County in Stage 4.

Canyon County just had three more people die this week from COVID-19 and has a case rate of 745 cases per 100,000 people. That’s nearly as high as Ada County’s rate of 765 cases per 100,000 people.

Based on its daily new cases load on a seven-day rolling average, as of Friday, Canyon County’s rate of 41.1 was the highest in the state, according to the Harvard Global Health Institute.

According to those standards, Ada and Canyon counties’ levels are well beyond a tipping point and should be under stay-at-home orders — certainly not at Stage 3, where gatherings are limited to fewer than 50, teleworking is encouraged and nightclubs are closed, or Stage 4, which, quite frankly has very few restrictions.

As it is, we’re seeing increased hospitalizations, more new cases every day, increased use of ICUs and increased rates of positive tests.

In parts of Idaho, things are going in the wrong direction. And no one at the state level is sounding the alarm.

Little need look no further than Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a fellow conservative governor in a deep-red state who hit the brakes on his state’s reopening plan two weeks ago, after a spike in COVID-19 cases. But Abbott also recognized that it wasn’t happening in every county in his state, and he focused on four counties in particular where the problems were most prevalent. Little can do the same here.

Here, in the middle of a pandemic, we have an outbreak of a different sort: an epidemic among leaders from the president to governors in states at risk, washing their hands of responsibility and passing it to lower levels of authority. That has produced a fragmented response, which in Idaho results in too many outbreaks, and which gives the United States some of highest numbers across the globe.

Gov. Little needs to step up.