White House coronavirus senior adviser Andy Slavitt warned Tuesday that governors who lift Covid-19 restrictions before enough people have been vaccinated are “playing with fire.”
Slavitt was quickly joined by a chorus of public health experts who told NBC News that governors risk sparking another wave of coronavirus infections if they move too fast to return to "normal life" by dispensing with proven Covid-19 protections like mask mandates.
"People seem to forget that while there is a light at the end of the tunnel, we aren’t out of the tunnel yet," added Summer Johnson McGee, who is dean of the University of New Haven's School of Health Sciences.
"If people resume their normal activities and restrictions are rolled back without reaching herd immunity, a fourth wave is guaranteed," McGee said. "When you combine spring break and increased travel with lifted restrictions and Covid fatigue, you have the perfect trifecta for another Covid wave."
The experts spoke out as Covid-19 case numbers have been spiking in Michigan and rising at an alarming rate in states like New Jersey, West Virginia, Hawaii, Pennsylvania and Connecticut, even as the pace at which the vaccines are being distributed across the United States has rapidly accelerated under the Biden administration.
“Look, we’re not out of this pandemic yet. We still have an accelerating threat, and if you’ve been vaccinated, that’s wonderful, I’m really glad about that,” Slavitt told MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle. “But we also have to remember that there’s millions and millions of people who haven’t yet been vaccinated. And so, lifting all these restrictions, telling people not to wear masks, gathering in large crowds, that’s the equivalent of playing with fire.”
Dr. Sadiya Khan, an epidemiologist at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, agreed.
"Even as vaccinations increase and we are seeing millions of people getting their shots, we are still not yet ready for normal life with big gatherings or life without masks," she said. "But, we are so, so close. And focusing on the task at hand of getting vaccines to as many people as possible every day while maintaining all of the safety protocols is still necessary."
The governors of states like Arizona, Connecticut, Maryland, Mississippi, Texas, West Virginia and Wyoming have, in recent weeks, lifted economic restrictions and either loosened — or done away with — safety measures like mask mandates over the objections of most public health experts.
Without naming names, Slavitt said that “the governors around the country, some of them don’t want to have any role in the rescue of our country and our citizens,”
“And the real question is, are we going to participate in that rescue, like the response from the Biden administration, or are we going to just wait and hope science rescues us?” Slavitt said. “And I think we can all work together, we can beat this much quicker.”
Slavitt told Ruhle that the increasingly good news from the vaccination front has lulled too many Americans into the thinking the pandemic is almost over.
“Well look, it's just like last springtime,” Slavitt said. “You look outside, you know. You can't see the virus. You see the vaccinations. And all of that feels good.”
But the message from the Biden administration, Slavitt said, is “we have an accelerated threat, we are accelerating our response.” And, he added, Americans should “hold on for a couple more weeks at least.”
“Within three weeks, 90 percent of Americans will be within five miles of a vaccine, and 90 percent of Americans will be eligible for the vaccines, and by May 1, that will be 100 percent,” he said.
Public health officials, including those working with the Biden administration, have said that more than 70 percent of the total U.S. population (332.5 million) would have to be vaccinated to reach herd immunity.