1. Five months into his tenure, Governor McKee is facing his biggest leadership test so far. Not so long ago it looked like he had perfect timing, taking office as vaccinations ramped up and COVID-19 cases fell to very low levels. But the delta variant has disrupted that smooth trajectory, triggering a midsummer wave of infections and hospitalizations just weeks before the start of school. Now McKee is facing tough decisions about whether to reimpose mask mandates. His hesitation was visible at Tuesday’s briefing, where he sat unmasked alongside Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos, Health Director Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott, and COVID response chief Tom McCarthy — all of whom wore masks. McKee rivals Nellie Gorbea and Seth Magaziner both took aim at the governor for failing to institute a statewide K-12 mask mandate, though others noted Charlie Baker and Ned Lamont have similarly left the decision to local districts. Yet by Friday, McKee’s team had ordered masking in all state buildings — and a K-12 mandate was actively being discussed. “I’m concerned now, given some of the conversations we’ve seen at school committees over the last week, that we’re not being direct enough about the masking requirements,” McCarthy told me on this week’s Newsmakers. With General Assembly leaders making clear to McKee he has the legal authority to take such a step, and 34 lawmakers urging him to do so in an open letter Friday, the decision rests with him. “I don’t think the governor’s taking anything off the table,” McCarthy said.
2. With the pandemic now well into its second year, it’s no surprise people are dispirited to see case counts and hospitalizations on the rise again — particularly here in the Northeast where so many have gotten vaccinated. Tom McCarthy, who was appointed COVID czar during the transition between Gina Raimondo and Dan McKee, sees a light at the end of the tunnel despite the current setback. “At this point, with vaccines and treatments, we know that we can get on the backside of this, the backside of delta, in the next 45 to 60 days,” he said on Newsmakers. “This isn’t like where we were last winter, where we were waiting on vaccines and we didn’t know what that timeline looked like. So an extra bit of vigilance to ensure our students can learn in person safely, we can continue to do the things we enjoy, and we’ll all be in good shape.”