Governors in Florida, Texas, Nebraska, Mississippi, Georgia and South Carolina have all recently made it clear: No shutdowns and no vaccine mandates. Gov. Ron DeSantis this week criticized some states that tried to staunch the spread of omicron infections, saying, “If you look at what’s going on in other states, they are letting hysteria drive them.”

Yet DeSantis, as well as Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott, called on the Biden administration to do more to get the new, highly contagious variant under control. So have Arkansas’s Asa Hutchinson and New Hampshire’s Chris Sununu, though both have warned of the dangers of the new variant. Abbott on Friday urged the administration to “to step up in this fight and provide the resources necessary to help protect Texans,” including more monoclonal antibody treatments that have been effective in treating Covid-19…

DeSantis’s criticism this week is part of balancing act for him and other Republican governors as they navigate an ongoing public health crisis, their future political aspirations and constituents exhausted after facing almost two years of life in a pandemic. While some voters may be indifferent, the elected officials still acknowledge that something must be done to help vulnerable populations.