A number of governors on Sunday defended easing Covid-19 restrictions in their states against top health officials’ warnings that Americans should remain vigilant against highly transmissible variants and that the US could see another spike in cases.

In some of the more extreme rollbacks, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, both Republicans, lifted mask mandates and allowed businesses to operate at full capacity in their states — stances President Joe Biden blasted as “neanderthal thinking.”