After Texas Governor Greg Abbott confirmed he would lift the statewide mask and occupancy mandates on Mar. 2, both Texans and outsiders have experienced some mixed emotions. While many have taken these restrictions for granted and have seen these guidelines as an inconvenience when it comes to the public’s health, it is crucial to follow coronavirus precautions, whether it is avoiding large gatherings, maintaining social distancing, or wearing a mask at all times.

This executive order took effect on Mar. 10, allowing businesses to open at 100% capacity without enforcing COVID-19 mask mandates.

“It’s time to reopen Texas 100%… Everybody who wants to work should have that opportunity. Every business that wants to be open, should be open,” Abbott said. 

Although it is true that vaccines are slowly being distributed, the majority of people still have yet to receive them, and many are skeptical about the effects of the vaccine. Even with the urge of exercising “personal vigilance” to navigate the pandemic, many people have still continued to disregard these precautions. Not to mention, the Texas coronavirus infections and deaths have gradually risen again; Texas has the third-highest state toll in the U.S. You would think Texas would be more cautious, but it has become the largest U.S. state to get rid of the mask mandate. 

“We appreciate the challenges governors face in making all the decisions they face, and we recognize that a lot of these are theirs to make. But the president has been very clear that we will save a lot of lives if the first 100 days—50,000 lives, that’s the estimate if everybody wears a mask. And so we think it’s critical, particularly now as we’re starting to see an increase in cases in Texas, which we’ve seen over the last week, and particularly as we have plans now to vaccinate the country. Now’s not the time to do this,” said White House senior adviser for COVID-19 response Andy Slavitt.

These enforced rules of wearing a mask at all times have been essential components to decreasing the spread of the pandemic, so how will this new approach keep everyone safe? The simple answer to this question is that it won’t. Without safety measures strictly set in place, not only does this endanger people around the world, but it also puts our own lives at risk. 

“It seems irresponsible to indicate to people that somehow it’s now safe to not wear masks because everyone from our local health authority, Dr. Escott, to scientists, you know, at the national level are saying that we need to keep wearing masks to stop COVID from having another surge,” Travis County Judge Andy Brown said.

With the highly contagious variants and elements of the coronavirus, many health officials have tried convincing Texans to be wary of Abbott’s announcement, as the virus has not completely vanished yet. Even if some restraints have been removed, it is still greatly important to try your best to avoid any ways of transmitting the virus. Despite these warnings, Abbott has said that the state was “in a far better position now.” 

There need to be steps to improvement, and currently, we are walking backward as Texas has injected false beliefs and ideas of the virus. So all I ask is for Texas to please, keep your mandates and lower the COVID-19 counts to save the tens of thousands of lives that will be lost without it. 

Photo courtesy of TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG