Indianz.Com > News > Kaiser Health News: Tribes confront rise in COVID-19 cases
How Escalating COVID Cases Forced One State to Change Its Masking Strategy
Thursday, November 12, 2020
Kaiser Health News
In Montana’s conservative Flathead County, prosecutors and local leaders were turning a blind eye to businesses that flouted state mask and social distancing mandates, even as the area’s COVID infections climbed to their
highest levels.
When asked during an October 7 press call from Montana’s capital city whether the state would step in, Gov. Steve Bullock said it was up to the locals to enforce the directives.
“I’ve never met anyone in Flathead County, especially Flathead government, that has asked me to take over their government,” Bullock
said
with a laugh. “It can’t all be solved from Helena.”
Just two weeks later, the Democratic governor, who was also running for the U.S. Senate,
pivoted. He announced the state was taking five Flathead businesses to court for violating COVID-related mandates, asking a judge to order them to comply or close their doors.
While the state’s public mask mandate has been in place since July, enforcement had been left to local governments that largely lack the resources or the political will to do so. It’s an issue seen across the nation as public health decisions to curb the coronavirus are resisted by local leaders, business owners and individuals who are sick of pandemic rules — or too broke to continue them — or who question the state’s authority to issue them in the first place.
Yet rising caseloads have forced an evolution in the efforts to persuade people to mask up. When appealing to people’s better nature and sense of community didn’t work, Montana officials began a steady escalation: adding in guilt, then public shaming, and now attempts to punish. Still, there’s little evidence that minds are being changed, and a new Republican governor-elect, Greg Gianforte, will take over in January after campaigning more on “personal responsibility” than on state-issued mandates.
In June, Montana tried the soft approach with state
public service announcements, including a video with a cowboy lassoing a calf, a hunter walking through a field and a child smiling in her mom’s arms.
“Montanans are independent. We’re also responsible, protective and committed to our families and communities,” the voiceover says before the scene cuts to a gray-haired couple wearing masks. “That’s why we’ve done so well against COVID-19.”
Katheryn Houghton is Kaiser Health News’ Montana correspondent. She owes her health reporting start to years spent in daily newsrooms, including those of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle and the Daily Inter Lake. She’s been an Association of Health Care Journalists fellow and a Solutions Journalism Network grantee. She is a graduate of the University of Montana.
Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
Search
Filed Under
Tags
More Headlines
AUDIO: The Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission’s Report on Native Children
VIDEO: The Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission’s Report on Native Children
Native America Calling: Charting the future of Native jazz
Native America Calling: Miss Indian World Kassie John
AUDIO: American Indian & Alaska Native Public Witness Hearing: Day 1, Afternoon Session
AUDIO: American Indian & Alaska Native Public Witness Hearing: Day 1, Morning Session
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hosts discussion on Native children
Native America Calling: Is the sky the limit for tribal sovereignty?
Native America Calling: The economic strength — and responsibilities — of tribal wealth
AUDIO: Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Legislative Hearing to receive testimony on S. 465 & S. 2695
VIDEO: Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Legislative Hearing to receive testimony on S. 465 & S. 2695
AUDIO: Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Business Meeting to consider S. 616, S. 2868, S. 3022, H.R. 1240, S. 2796
VIDEO: Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Business Meeting to consider S. 616, S. 2868, S. 3022, H.R. 1240, S. 2796
NAFOA: 5 Things You Need to Know this Week
Chuck Hoskin: Cherokee Nation works to support autism in our community
More Headlines
VIDEO: The Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission’s Report on Native Children
Native America Calling: Charting the future of Native jazz
Native America Calling: Miss Indian World Kassie John
AUDIO: American Indian & Alaska Native Public Witness Hearing: Day 1, Afternoon Session
AUDIO: American Indian & Alaska Native Public Witness Hearing: Day 1, Morning Session
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hosts discussion on Native children
Native America Calling: Is the sky the limit for tribal sovereignty?
Native America Calling: The economic strength — and responsibilities — of tribal wealth
AUDIO: Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Legislative Hearing to receive testimony on S. 465 & S. 2695
VIDEO: Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Legislative Hearing to receive testimony on S. 465 & S. 2695
AUDIO: Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Business Meeting to consider S. 616, S. 2868, S. 3022, H.R. 1240, S. 2796
VIDEO: Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Business Meeting to consider S. 616, S. 2868, S. 3022, H.R. 1240, S. 2796
NAFOA: 5 Things You Need to Know this Week
Chuck Hoskin: Cherokee Nation works to support autism in our community
More Headlines