From Massachusetts to New York to Illinois, states were rapidly lifting mask mandates Wednesday as the Omicron wave recedes, and governors come under intense pressure from Americans who are exhausted by the pandemic.

Those states and Rhode Island joined a growing list that included California and Oregon, places that once enforced strict protocols but are now shifting as case numbers plummet and polling shows bipartisan pandemic fatigue. The moves will step up the pressure on the Biden administration, and in particular on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to offer new guidance to the states on mask wearing and other mitigation measures.

The White House has been quietly meeting with outside health experts to plan a pandemic exit strategy and a transition to a “new normal,” but the behind-the-scenes effort is crashing into the public reality of blue-state governors have gotten ahead of President Biden by suddenly abandoning their mask mandates.

The governor of Illinois, Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, said Wednesday the statewide indoor mask requirement there would be lifted on Feb. 28. But he held off on changing the rule for schools (…) “Protecting everyone in a school community, their education and their health is our highest priority in the coming weeks,” he said at a news conference. “It’s my hope and expectation that we will continue making progress to a place where we can remove school masking requirements and keep kids in schools.”

(https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/09/world/covid-test-vaccine-cases)

According to the text, the idea of the title and in the first paragraphs is