It’s mid-February, 2022 and New York State Governor Kathy Hochul recently announced the relaxing of the state’s face masking mandates. She had re-imposed said mandates in December, as cold and flu season started up, and claimed her measures would help contain covid infections. Unlike the prior two years, for this round of restrictions, many county governments openly rebelled and publicly stated that they would not enforce Hochul’s orders.

On the other hand, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz strongly supports Hochul’s assumed authority. Most city of Buffalo residents appreciated Poloncarz’s tough-guy stance, but several of the smaller towns within the county issued statements condemning their county-level overlords.

All this is happening as most other places in the USA have dropped their covid-era restrictions.