White House task force tells public-health leaders to appeal directly to the public if state or officials are uncooperative

The White House Coronavirus Task Force wants public-health officials to appeal directly to the public if elected officials won't impose or enforce mask mandates or other pandemic preventives.

It's not an unfounded concern. Several states lack mask mandates, and some communities, perhaps more in conservative rural areas, do not enforce them, Emma Coleman notes for Route Fifty.

At least one Virginia county has taken things further than simply not creating or enforcing social-distancing measures. In Campbell County, near Lynchburg, the Board of Supervisors approved a measure rejecting Gov. Ralph Northam's coronavirus restrictions, declaring the county a "First Amendment Sanctuary," Gregory Schneider reports for The Washington Post.

Conservative activists are urging Virginia local governments "to pass so-called 'nullification resolutions' that attempt to follow the path scores of Virginia localities blazed a year ago when they adopted various resolutions declaring themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries," the Post's Norman Leahy reports.