Last week, Gov. Kay Ivey announced she was extending elements of her emergency order to deal with the threat of COVID-19 through April 9.
Shortly before that official announcement, Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth called on Ivey to end the mandate, which has been underway nearly a year.
During an appearance on Huntsville radio’s “WVNN Afternoons” on Monday, Ainsworth told fill-in host Phil Williams he disagreed with the decision and questioned the efficacy of the masks to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
“I felt pretty clearly — that’s why we called for it, I think it’s past time,” he said. “I think when you look at the data, it’s really interesting. I saw a graph today I put out on social media. It tracked the states that had mask mandates in place and states that did not — I think what we’re going to learn from this and we’re all learning, but I think what we’re going to learn from this is this followed the pattern of the flu, right? It peaked during the winter, and now it’s going back down. And what’s intriguing — you take a state like Kristi Noem is governor, or you know, look at Texas or some of these other states — Tennessee, Florida, you know — wherever. And then you track that to other states.”
“I don’t think you’re seeing the mask made that big of a difference,” Ainsworth continued. “And in a lot of instances, not even masks but maybe even a bigger part is what we’ve done to business, right? I mean, we’ve totally destroyed them. Just in Albertville — Catfish Cabin that has been in business 40 years because of not being able to have enough people in their restaurant is shut down. My position is I’m not going to apologize for fighting for businesses. I mean, this has nothing to do against Governor Ivey. She is a nice lady, but I just disagree. I’m going to fight for the people of Alabama that have a right to make a living and for personal freedom and for personal responsibility. I mean, if you don’t want to wear a mask and you feel safe doing that, you should be able to not wear one. If you want to open up your business and if a customer doesn’t feel comfortable, they can walk out. We’ve got to give people the opportunity to, you know, make a living. That’s what I’ve been fighting for ever since we gave the plan to reopen the economy.”
The lieutenant governor also argued extending the mask mandate could be a slippery slope for government action in the future.
“I think we’ve got to be careful the precedent it sets, right?” Ainsworth added. “I mean, you already hear people talking about extending the mask mandate into 2022. And then you hear, ‘Maybe we should do this every winter to prevent the flu. I just think the precedent this sets is very dangerous. Now there’s going to be variations of the COVID. It’s already out there, right? I just think that you’ve always got to side with what made America great, and that’s freedom, liberty, to go actually provide for your family. When we start taking those things away, you better watch out and say, ‘Wait a minute. What are we doing?’ and you know, push back. And that’s all I’m really trying to do.”
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Alabama, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly, and host of Mobile’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. on FM Talk 106.5.
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