- Vice President Mike Pence said Friday that Iowa "has been leading the way" in the fight against COVID-19.
- The state recently began allowing religious institutions to hold in-person services again, despite a rising death toll from the coronavirus.
- "We are pretty much in a position of uniformly believing that it's too early to return to personal worship. It's inadvisable at the moment particularly with rising case counts in communities where we are across the state," David Kaufman, rabbi of Temple B'nai Jeshurun in Des Moines, told the Associated Press.
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Vice President Mike Pence has said Iowa is a COVID-19 "success story," telling religious leaders on Friday that it "has been leading the way with Governor Kim Reynolds," a fellow Republican who has begun reopening the state.
But while not as hard hit as America's coasts, Iowa has still suffered at least 243 confirmed deaths due to the coronavirus — nearly as many as South Korea, despite having 1/16th the population — with a dozen more fatalities reported the day of Pence's trip.
Gov. Reynolds recently allowed religious institutions to hold socially-distanced services again, a fact that won her an invite to the White House earlier in the week and the visit on Friday from Pence, whose trip was briefly delayed by the news that his press secretary tested positive for COVID-19.
"We grieve the loss of life here in Iowa, but the numbers speak for themselves," the vice president said, per the Des Moines Register.
Those numbers, however, are trending in an upward direction. The 12 deaths announced on Friday are an increase from the 8 deaths announced a week before, and the single death reported a month ago. Indeed, as the Associated Press reported, "Iowa this week experienced its worst one- and two-day virus-related death totals" — a total of 31 on Tuesday and Wednesday — "and hospitalizations continued to climb to a new one-day high of more than 400 on Wednesday."
The state never imposed a shelter-in-place order, with the governor citing the potential adverse effects on mental health, but it did shutter restaurants and bars. Reynolds also encouraged Iowans to "be responsible and stay home as much as possible."
More recently, however, Reynolds has sought to return much of the state to the pre-pandemic normal, despite the rising toll of the virus. On April 27, she announced that in 77 of Iowa's 99 counties, restaurants, gyms, and retail stores could reopen at half-capacity.
"We must learn to live with COVID virus activity without letting it govern our lives," she said.
Reynolds also said that religious institutions could start holding in-person services again, provided they increased sanitation and enabled worshippers to remain six feet apart.
On Friday, Vice President Pence attended a forum with the state's religious leaders, describing restrictions on services as "a source of heartache for people across the country." Still, while some are indeed taking advantage of the state's loosened policy, some appear to be saying: not so fast.
"We are pretty much in a position of uniformly believing that it's too early to return to personal worship. It's inadvisable at the moment particularly with rising case counts in communities where we are across the state," David Kaufman, rabbi of Temple B'nai Jeshurun in Des Moines, told the Associated Press.
Kaufman, who spoke with Pence at the forum, wore a mask. The vice president did not.
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