One wave of speculation bets that Abbott is less concerned with public health – he reportedly didn’t consult three of his four medical experts before announcing his decision, nor has he gathered in many moons his handpicked Strike Force to Open Texas to advise him. This speculation holds that he’s far more concerned about his political prospects, both presidential in 2024 (assuming former President Trump doesn’t run) and gubernatorial in 2022. Running for president might be easier if one is governor. Of course, that’s assuming he can get past his role in leaving Texans without power and water for days during the recent devastating winter storm.
Consider Abbott’s point of view: Science-scoffing Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis emerged from last month’s Conservative Political Action Conference with high approval ratings, bolstering any run for higher office. And in Texas, Republican Party of Texas chairman Allen West has for months successfully whipped up Republican resentment against Abbott for his public health measures. Both West and equally colorful Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller appear to be jockeying to challenge Abbott in 2022. And Republican state legislators are now debating how to curtail Abbott’s executive powers.
Solution, at least as Abbott might see it: Lift public health measures just as the Biden administration is ramping up delivery of vaccines to ensure more Americans can get vaccinated sooner. Catch: When not even 10 percent of our state’s population has gotten fully vaccinated, lifting restrictions now strikes rational Texans as another case of the state and federal governments working at cross-purposes.
Other speculation runs darker: The Republican governor supposedly wants to make the Democratic Biden administration look bad despite its aggressively addressing the COVID-19 pandemic in ways the previous administration did not. One way to do so: undermining Biden administration efforts and letting everyone in Texas shed his or her mask in public in the name of economic recovery and individual liberty. The spike in disease can then be blamed on Biden. In short, unleash the online memes. Set loose the talk-radio demi-gods.
Yet it’s always dangerous to assume what motives lurk in the heart of an individual, even a politician – and that’s assuming a politician these days even comes equipped with a heart. So let’s instead judge the governor by his words and deeds, including his remarks lifting the mask mandate in Texas and increasing capacity of all businesses and facilities in the state to 100 percent, meaning more of us in the workplace and places of business, either as employees or customers. (This latest executive order goes into effect today.)
"We must now do more to restore livelihoods and normalcy for Texans by opening Texas 100 percent,” Abbott said. “Make no mistake, COVID-19 has not disappeared, but it is clear from the recoveries, vaccinations, reduced hospitalizations and safe practices Texans are using that state mandates are no longer needed. Today's announcement does not abandon safe practices that Texans have mastered over the past year. Instead, it is a reminder that each person has a role to play in their own personal safety and the safety of others.”
In a perfect vacuum, this makes sense. And clearly the governor is stressing Texans “not abandon safe practices.” Yet one reason Abbott has seen himself labeled “King Abbott” and “tyrannical” by fellow Republicans is that some are concerned about their own individual liberties and pursuit of happiness with no concern whatsoever for the welfare of others in our society. And unfortunately, many of these crazies control critical levers of power in today’s Republican Party of Texas.
Yet for all the brickbats lobbed his way by Chairman West and a handful of carnival barkers in the Texas Legislature, Abbott now foolishly risks giving up the modest credit many of us – Republican, Democrat and independent alike – have lent him in this year-long struggle by surrendering the battle just as vaccine supplies are increased. Defying political logic, Abbott forsakes hard-earned constituent goodwill and trust.
The Texas Restaurant Association, one of the most influential pro-business
groups in Texas, quietly applauded the governor’s move but also made clear its anxieties,
advising that all restaurant employees continue wearing face coverings when
working and that they pass health screenings before each shift. It also
recommends social distancing when seating parties. Many restaurants are
complying with such advice. They know that unless people feel confident about
dining in, many customers will stay away.
Same goes for any business, something Waco native Austan Goolsbee, Robert P. Gwinn Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, stressed in a Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago interview last July, back when many of us still looked desperately for science to produce vaccines: “I always say, ‘The virus is the boss,’ which means the most important thing you can do for the economy is to slow the rate of spread of the virus. So policymakers have got to take every action they can to slow the rate of spread of the virus. The irony is that you don’t need the vaccine in order to do that. Places like Taiwan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand got control of the virus through public health measures and they’re basically back (to pre-pandemic economic levels). I wish we could put a direct focus on the public health aspect.”
Certainly, Dr. Jackson Griggs, who more than anyone in McLennan County has become the public face of medical science, research and common sense in this pandemic, put his best face forward on the governor’s March 2 announcement: "While I am very optimistic that COVID-19 case fatality rates will decrease as vaccination rates climb, it is important to remember that the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] still recommends masking any time you are not with members of your own household. Wearing a face covering remains a crucial community-wide practice to slow spread among friends, family and colleagues. If you are in a closed space with non-household members, I strongly encourage the consistent use [of] masking for the safety and health of all."
And consider the hair-raising scene in a waiting room at a local hospital in conservative Central Texas last Thursday afternoon when one patient in conversation with others suddenly blurted out, “Gov. Abbott is trying to kill us all!” The others agreed. A nurse marveling at the conversation before her expressed relief that at least the H-E-B grocery stores so prevalent in the Waco area still require masks of their customers – except that wasn’t quite so. In the wake of the governor’s announcement, H-E-B said masks would be strongly encouraged of customers but no longer mandated. Then it clarified its policy, issuing this statement: “We will continue to expect shoppers to wear masks while in our stores. H-E-B has always been a strong proponent and advocate of mask use even before mandates and orders were passed.” Clear as mud.
The change in tactics invites us to reflect deeply on past COVID-19 victims and the possibility of more such victims, especially when so many Texans defiantly march to Lt. Col. West’s fife-and-drum tune about liberty and continue politicizing mask mandates, travel advisories, physical distancing and vaccines. A graying acquaintance of mine boldly announced she refused to allow the deadly virus to change her life — and so continued her dizzying round of leisurely activities and travel involving everything from casinos to beaches through the very worst of the pandemic. And, of course, the virus did change her life. Her dutiful, soft-spoken husband recently died of COVID-19, robbing her not only of her lifelong companion but the mindful custodian of their financial affairs and a significant livelihood to fund her joyous pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.
The very day Abbott's executive order lifting the mandate went into effect, alert Waco Tribune-Herald readers also considered the rich, charitable life of one of our community's latest COVID-19 victims, 76-year-old Susan Lamb, a Texas native who spent 40 years teaching and supporting special education students, including in Waco Independent School District and at the Waco-based Methodist Children's Home. In retirement, she traveled to China to minister and teach English. She became a teacher and mentor to incarcerated youth in Brownwood. To quote her obituary further: "There was never a cat in need that she didn't shower with love and provide with food and shelter. She was committed to helping others, and during her retirement she volunteered for Meals on Wheels, taught piano to adults and shared her love of Christ by teaching Sunday school at Columbus Avenue Baptist Church. Her last words showed her strong commitment to her faith and desire to see her [late] husband and parents [with] her final words to family being: ‘I got something to do and somewhere to go.’" She died of COVID-19 two days before the mask mandate was lifted by the governor.
Which raises a relevant question: Will lifting the mask mandate at this critical juncture truly safeguard Texans and others moving forward? As popular scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson noted last week about Abbott's decision and similar decisions in other states: "To abolish mask-wearing laws in some states while the rest of the nation keeps theirs is like designating a peeing section in a swimming pool."
If this were the wartime equivalent President Trump sometimes talked about in 2020, not only would Gov. Abbott’s courage on his particular field of battle be justifiably questioned with last week’s executive order, so would his sanity as a responsible leader. Whether you like President Biden or not, the cavalry is on the horizon. The bugle is blowing. It’s no time to send up the white flag when Texas can sacrifice and struggle a few months more and edge closer and closer to that cherished herd immunity that most folks – even Republicans – agree will significantly safeguard us.
A week ago my wife and I got our second Moderna shots at Baylor University’s McLane Stadium. (We got our first shots at the city convention center in downtown Waco.) I cannot stress how deeply impressed I was with this wonderfully organized, efficient and cordial collaboration between city-county public health officials, Baylor Scott & White staffers, Baylor University and an army of friendly, patient volunteers. The open-air process at McLane took less than a half-hour and we never even had to leave the comfort of our car.
City officials tell me the only thing holding back accelerating such efforts into hyper-drive is the supply of vaccine.
“We have told the state [that] our public health district can receive and distribute significantly more vaccines – up to 10,000 a week – but we’re still only getting 1,500,” Waco Mayor Dillon Meek told me. “Further, we have extensively advocated for additional vaccines. We’ve called and sent written letters discussing our need to every level of higher leadership. We also developed a Waco Strategic Vaccination Procurement Taskforce, composed of public health workers, lobbyists, health care experts and government leaders to ensure we’re presenting the right data to get more vaccines to Waco.”
In short, once again that government closest to the people is working most
aggressively to obtain herd immunity in our region. Meanwhile, state government
is arguably mixing public welfare with political motives and machinations.
By standing strong on the mask mandate imposed last summer, Gov. Abbott gave much-needed
political cover to countless mayors and county judges (including Meek, his mayoral
predecessor Kyle Deaver and McLennan County Judge Scott Felton) whenever the
complainers among us griped and whined about the discomfort of masks and
suppressed liberties and such. Local leaders, so often vilified by state
lawmakers, could in this one crisis explain that, whatever else, the mandate was
issued by the governor and that all of us must try to abide for everyone’s
sake. For once, it seemed, most of us were on the same page.
Even friends of mine with whom I seldom agree on politics have expressed surprise in the governor’s about-face in all this. And while they aren’t necessarily trying to deduce the governor’s motives for abruptly dropping our collective guard, they’ve also made clear they personally don’t plan on changing their daily routines of precaution and vigilance. They’re going to keep masking up, staying properly distanced and limiting travel, especially with potentially insidious viral variants increasingly prevalent.
Maybe questioning Abbott’s ulterior motives isn’t fair, but then he didn’t exactly
help matters when, in response to President Biden’s criticizing the lifting of
mask mandates as “Neanderthal thinking,” the governor charged the
Biden administration has been “releasing immigrants in South Texas that have
been exposing Texans to COVID.”
As my former Tribune-Herald opinion page colleague, veteran newswoman Sandra
Sanchez, stressed in her Tuesday account about Abbott for Border Report, the
situation involving immigrants and COVID-19 is somewhat complicated, involves multiple
agencies and initiatives and, yes, leaves plenty of room for finger-pointing at
both the Biden and Abbott administrations. To his credit, Brandon Judd, president of the
National Border Patrol Council, took the high ground during Abbott’s sputtering press
conference in Mission Tuesday, stressing specific solutions in the context of a
robust state-federal collaboration; Abbott by contrast spent more time
inflaming matters, likely further indication of what’s actually on his mind these days.
Just for the sake of argument, let’s assume for a moment the undocumented immigrants being released into Texas society are indeed COVID-ridden, every single one of them, rather than, say, a small percentage: What’s the smartest course of action Texans can pursue to protect themselves short of driving into the Rio Grande anyone who simply looks like an immigrant? How about masking up and staying physically distanced a few months more till more and more of us have up to 95 percent protection against being infected by immigrants or anyone else close by, including all those Republicans who loudly refuse to mask up or physically distance or get COVID-19 vaccinations?
In the end, Abbott is clearly rolling the dice not just on his political
fortunes but on the chance that lifting the mask mandate won’t prompt another surge
in hospitalizations and death, even as viral variants threaten to complicate
matters in terms of spread and lethality. The irony? Regardless of what you think of Abbott’s words and deeds of
late, we all have an interest in seeing to his success in this reckless and
self-serving gambit, given that the ones who might pay the greatest price
otherwise are our friends, neighbors and loved ones.
In short, keep masking up – and when in public, avoid the unmasked like the
plague. They might be just that.
