With COVID-19 cases rapidly declining and vaccinations ramping up, Texas has reopened its economy from measures to contain the virus, the largest state to do so.
At a March 9 press conference, Gov. Gregg Abbott (R) said his new executive order would rescind most of the state’s public health restrictions.
“All businesses of any type are allowed to open 100 percent,” Gregg said. “That includes any type of entity in Texas. Also, I am ending the statewide mask mandate.”
The statewide mask mandate has been in effect since July but has had minimal impact in containing the virus. The seven-day average for COVID-19 deaths is now 228, which is actually higher than it was when the mask mandate started, according to Yahoo.
During the pandemic, Texas limited indoor capacity in restaurants and required all citizens to wear masks in public. Abbott, however, limited local health departments from imposing penalties for not wearing mask coverings. At the time of the announcement, Texas reported 26.3 cases per 100,000, higher than two-thirds of the nation, deaths from COVID-19 were lower than many states.
“Removing statewide mandates does not end personal responsibility,” Abbott said. “It’s just that now state mandates are no longer needed.”
Texas joins a growing number of states lifting COVID-19 restrictions. Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota no longer require masks in public and allow businesses to operate at full capacity. Massachusetts has removed capacity limits on restaurants and South Carolina will all gatherings of more than 250 people.
A number of states, including Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee, have lifted statewide mask mandates but allow local governments to order masks.
Oregon state lawmakers are considering a permanent mask mandate, reports The Federalist, on March 18.
CDC: At Your Own Peril
The Biden administration and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) wasted no time criticizing the re-openings, stating this is not the right time to remove restrictions.
The day before Texas announced reopening, Rochelle Walensky, M.D., the head of the CDC stated at a White House press briefing, “Please hear me clearly. At this level of cases with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we have gained.”
Walensky mentioned reports of the mutating virus.
“These variants are a very real threat to our people and to our progress,” Walensky stated. “Now is not the time to relax the critical safeguards that we know could stop the spread of COVID-19 in our communities, not when we are so close.”
That is not true, says Jane Orient, M.D., executive director to the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons and policy advisor to The Heartland Institute, which co-publishes Health Care News.
“We have learned that lockdowns and mask mandates are devastating to lives and livelihoods to NO benefit,” Orient said. “It is hard for government to admit to a huge mistake. We also need to learn about the tremendous damage from not using early therapy, and to relearn the lesson that to find out what is really killing people we need to do autopsies. Many months went by before a few were done, and we learned about the blood clotting.”
Open? Hold On
Any state’s decision to reopen is not necessarily a guarantee individuals will be able to carry on life as they had. Businesses, event venues, airlines, and even churches may impose their own restrictions to use their facilities or obtain their service.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo on March 3 announced a pilot for the “Excelsior Pass,” a phone app that will show vaccination records and testing results. The state tested the app at a New York Rangers game at Madison Square Garden.
AnneMarie Schieber (amschieber@heartland.org) is the managing editor of Health Care News.
(This article was updated on March 18)