Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin will not mandate masks and vaccines, but neither will he attempt to block localities from implementing their own requirements related to the pandemic.
“Localities are going to have to make decisions the way the law works, and that is going to be up to individual decisions but, again, from the governor’s office, you won’t see mandates from me,” Youngkin said in an interview over the weekend.
So, that means, we get a hodgepodge of requirements, different here, different there, different everywhere.
This is Youngkin walking the tightrope yet again, between trying to appease the Trump base that treats COVID as a hoax, and masks and vaccines part of a sinister conspiracy, and moderates who let themselves be seduced into voting Republican because of a great job by Youngkin’s branding team presenting him as a regular guy.
He’s against requirements, but he’ll let liberal enclaves enact them.
How this impacts schools, big employers, in particular, good questions. Those are matters for federal courts, stocked full of Trump appointees, to sort out.
To the folks out there who thought you were voting to end the pandemic, COVID is undefeated politically the past two cycles, so, doubtful you’re going to get your way.
To the progressives who couldn’t hold your nose to vote for Terry McAuliffe because he isn’t Democrat enough, and there’s only about 800,000 of you who fit that description, the extra few months of high COVID numbers here that are going to come from Youngkin’s mishmash policy are on you.
Story by Chris Graham
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