A maskless Abbott
Hey this is boring let’s open everything up now! Right now! Never mind that vaccinations are only getting started, let’s do it now!
That’s Texas asshole governor Greg Abbott’s take anyway.
With less than 7% of Texans fully vaccinated and another Covid-19 surge potentially imminent, Texas is flinging open businesses to full capacity while simultaneously ending its highly politicized mask mandate, the state’s governor, Greg Abbott, announced on Tuesday.
“It is now time to open Texas 100%,” a maskless Abbott declared to cheers at a crowded restaurant in the city of Lubbock.
Yeah! Let’s have surge number 4!
When Abbott’s policy changes go into effect next week, Texas will be the most populous state in the country that does not require residents to wear masks. Restaurants and other businesses can choose to maintain their own mask policies, but without government backing to do so.
So all the performative libertarians will go to those restaurants and businesses without masks and dare anyone to object. Fun times.
Other states and cities have likewise started rolling back precautions. In Mississippi – another Republican stronghold – Governor Tate Reeves also announced on Tuesday that the state was lifting rules for businesses and doing away with county mask mandates.
Yes that’s great. Mississippi can well afford to have its hospitals fill up. It’s the poorest state in the country but what the hell, it can sell Girl Scout cookies if the Girl Scouts will share.
Abbott’s announcement – which comes after about 43,000 Texans have died from the virus, and while many Texans are still ineligible for the vaccine – sparked immediate and vehement backlash, from Democratic mayors to workers’ advocates infuriated that Texans of color will once again be the hardest hit.
Tsss of course they will – they do the crappiest jobs for the least money, and those jobs don’t tend to feature a lot of good managers who work hard to keep their workers safe and healthy. That’s how we do things in America.
“I think this is a slap in the face of working people, especially frontline workers, who have been risking their lives,” said Emily Timm, the co-executive director of Workers Defense Action Fund.
She’s just virtue-signaling, am I right?
Never mind, spring break is coming up, let’s party.
As most meaningful coronavirus-related restrictions disappear from Texas, the state is simultaneously staring down what could easily be a series of superspreader events over spring break.
South Texas beach towns in Corpus Christi and the already hard-hit Rio Grande Valley have long been popular destinations among party-going college students from around the country, and as tourists pack into bars and restaurants, none of them will have to wear masks or socially distance.
“You think we had a horrible spike on Memorial Day, and the Fourth of July, and during the holidays?” Hinojosa said. “The spike that this state will experience in coronavirus cases will be extremely high – and will cause many, many more deaths than any responsible governor should have allowed.”
Booya!
Yeah, our city council let our mask mandate expire. This week they were noticing that we had only a slight spike in new cases…run the numbers, and it is a 17% increase in new cases over last week. And our governor opens things up, too.
After the mask mandate, we had a dramatic drop in new cases. Yeah, let’s stop it, cases are down, right?
Has anyone done a red state vs blue state analysis on COVID-19? Infections, hospitalisations, deaths?
Not sure that specific analysis has been done, but you could certainly overlay blue/red leanings on county data from:
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home
or
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html (or similar…)
Of course, if you did that, you would also have to take other things into account that a simple red/blue state dichotomy wouldn’t show. For instance, cities are more likely to lean blue than rural areas, and cities are also more likely to have rapid spread, not because of policies but because of proximity to others. They also have a different dynamic in the poor, where the poor are often crowded together in dire conditions, which lead to spread, whereas in some areas, the poor may be living more isolated, out in the boonies (though I will admit, red state poverty can still lead to proximity to others and to rapid spread). In addition, the fact that minorities have been hit so much harder means that there is likely to be more rapid spread in cities; the red states are whiter than the blue states.
But…we do have tons of super-spreader megachurches.
Our daughter’s alma mater has cancelled spring break this year, and is just giving random days off (some on a Wednesday). I suspect this is why.
WaM, we just had a meeting yesterday where they told us graduation is on, is face to face, and no limits on how many people each student can invite. They did move it to a bigger venue, but I would be surprised if they enforce any kind of social distancing.
And they are still having graduate breakfast, with only five to a table.
Ugh. I’m grateful to live in a blue state.
California is only grudgingly reopening (cautiously, I would argue taking a positive spin), but the slowness is enough for the Trumpanzee/Deplorable contingent to scree! scree! scree! about our Governor (who has, admittedly, had some self-inflicted wounds). The Repukes are pouring money into the campaign. Even if one admitted Newsome has been ineffective on some things, the idea that rabid Trumpalos and mediocre Republican mayors would do better is laughable. The fact that I will never vote for a Republican TRAITOR again in my life aside.
I will continue my B- Covid avoidance status. I am solitary to begin with and most of my entertainment (road cycling) is solo anyway. But I do go to one coffee shop that is questionable. :(
As for Abbott, perhaps he needs a Costello mask.
Over here we’ve been using cycling as our entertainment/exercise too. There are no coffee shops in the 5km radius of home in which we are currently allowed to roam anyway, but even if there were, given the pandemic my husband would continue to carry a vacuum flask of coffee.