the mask mandate. At a political rally in July 2021, he called the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommendations on indoor face coverings "foolish" and "harmful". When a COVID-19 vaccine was made widely available, Reeves opposed vaccine requirements. Mississippi had one of the lowest vaccination rates among U.S. states, a fact Reeves downplayed. After President Joe Biden used his authority under the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act to require federal workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and to require all employers with more than 100 workers to require employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or receive weekly testing, Reeves called the mandate "tyranny" and an "attack on hardworking Americans." Biden responded by calling Reeves's remark "the worst kind of politics", referencing the 660,000 COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. up to that point and noting that "in Mississippi, children are required to be vaccinated against measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, hepatitis B, polio, tetanus and more." Reeves joined a Republican-led lawsuit against Biden's plan. In August 2021, Reeves argued that Mississippi Christians were "less scared" because "when you believe in eternal life—when you believe that living on this earth is but a blip on the screen, then you don't have to be so scared of things." That month, Mississippi had the nation's highest rate of COVID-19 cases and deaths per capita. During COVID-19, Mississippi suffered a shortage of hospital workers (in particular nurses). Reeves declined to call a special session of the legislature to allocate the state's $1.8 billion share of federal COVID-19 relief funds to address the crisis. Criminal justice and prisons In 2020, Reeves vetoed two criminal justice bills that would have expanded parole eligibility for Mississippi prisoners; one would have allowed nonviolent offenders to be considered for parole after serving 25% of their sentence, while the other would allow those convicted of violent crimes to be eligible for parole consideration after completing 50% of their sentence or 20 years, whichever comes first. In 2021, Reeves signed into law a narrower bill that expanded parole eligibility. He rejected calls to grant a pardon or commutation to Tameka Drummer, a Mississippi inmate serving a life without parole sentence for the possession of less than two ounces of marijuana; Drummer was sentenced in 2008 under the state's habitual-offender law. As governor, Reeves faced significant problems with the state's prison system, especially Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman—including widespread, deadly violence and