Georgia parents were teetering between hope and anxiety in early August as children were returning to classrooms. COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations were rising again after a mid-summer lull, and the CDC had just called for everyone in places like Georgia, with high disease transmission, to go back to wearing masks indoors.
Gov. Brian Kemp didn’t echo that call. When he went on national television to talk about the new school year, he spoke of masks as tools of government overreach, accusing the CDC of doublespeak. We don’t need mandates to know what to do, he said on Fox and Friends. His refrain there and at press conferences: We need to trust people to do the right thing.
In the days following, Kemp told Georgians to follow scientific guidance. But he also said it was up to every individual whether to wear masks or get vaccinated. Later, he gave state government workers the Friday off before Labor Day so that any who were unvaccinated could — if they so desired — schedule their shots.
On Aug. 19, as COVID-19 hospitalizations topped 5,000 and doctors from Atlanta’s major hospitals begged people to get vaccinated, Kemp signed an order allowing businesses to ignore any local COVID-19 restrictions. Four days later, as another 500 patients filled hospitals, Kemp said he hoped more Georgians would “become comfortable getting vaccinated.”
But the state’s vaccination rate barely budged as hospitalizations and infections in classrooms continued to soar during the pandemic’s lethal fourth wave.