Texas is 100% Open
Everything, Including Masks says Governor Greg Abbott
I just announced Texas is OPEN 100%.
EVERYTHING.
I also ended the statewide mask mandate.
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) March 2, 2021
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves (R) Lifts All Mask Mandates
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves (R) has lifted all county mask mandates and announced all businesses can operate at 100% capacity. pic.twitter.com/ye9IWmOW84
— The Recount (@therecount) March 2, 2021
Big Experiment
Less than 8% of Mississippians are fully vaccinated. For those that get the second vaccination, it takes up to 2 weeks to be 94% immune to the virus. @cityofoxford and @tatereeves just made a deathly judgement.
— talbert🫀 (@lordthtoole) March 2, 2021
An Opinion
This checks. See also @GovAbbott @tatereeves #MaskUp https://t.co/D9nH1pZQJb
— Kirsten Hancock (@KirstenLHancock) March 3, 2021
Eric Ding Wants to Vomit
This stain and all the COVID deaths to come will be forever your legacy https://t.co/8VkHnOAAyS
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) March 2, 2021
Sentiment Runs Both Ways
https://twitter.com/BoogleBagel/status/1367008073856999424
God Bless Texas
God Bless Texas!
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) March 2, 2021
Texas Death Warrant
Beto calls this “a death warrant for Texans.” https://t.co/z9EISxCcqH
— Adam Rifkin 🐼🌻 (@ifindkarma) March 3, 2021
Beto O’Rouke call Abbot’s decision a “Death warrant for Texans”.
Dr. Fauci 60 Minute Flashback
https://twitter.com/JonHeydrick/status/1366866219245174791
Dr. Fauci: “People should not be walking around with masks…. There is no reason to be walking around with a mask“.
Fauci’s remarks were made on March 8, 2020 and do not represent his current stance on face coverings.
He now says he was attempting to preserve masks for hospital workers.
Lying is Bad Business
Lying is a bad way to do business, especially when you change your tune so drastically going from no masks to supporting two masks and telling people not to eat out at all.
It is any wonder millions of people do not trust Fauci?
Fauci’s Forever Changing Tune
A few days ago I asked Is Anyone Else Fed Up With Dr. Fauci’s Forever Moving Goalposts?
For that I was attacked on the left and right for criticizing Fauci and for not criticizing him enough.
And I was also criticized for dragging the teachers’ union into the mud.
No attempt to look at both sides goes unpunished, especially one that involves unions on the side.
For a discussion of teachers’ union on which I am on rock sold ground, please see Even a $130 Billion Bribe Won’t Get Kids Back in the Classroom this School Year.
Meanwhile, Texas and Mississippi are rolling the dice. Full reopenings without masks, before mass vaccinations, will either work or fail. Lives are at stake.
Good luck.
Regardless of what one’s views are on masks, we should all be rooting that Abbott and Reeves made the correct decision.
Human Sacrifice Addendum
One normally reasonable reader commented
Regardless of what one’s views on human sacrifices are, we should all be rooting that those who are ordering the sacrifices will appease the gods and bring the much needed benefits.
That statement is of course ridiculous.
It is equates the possibility of a mistake to purposeful death. Realistically one might assume that in the name of “scientific integrity” we should be hoping people die, although I am sure that was not this person’s message.
What About Fauci’s Alleged Lie?
Another commented that Facui did not lie about masks, but rather the science changed. Lying involves and intent to deceive.
I believe Fauci did intend to deceive to preserve masks for health care workers. Low and behold, as soon as enough masks were available, Fauci changed his tune.
At best Fauci’s statements were horrid science. Scientists long ago knew how the flu spread and supposedly Covid was different.
The Grand Experiment
I agree with reopening, I don’t agree with casually deciding it’s OK for everyone not to wear masks.
Hopefully, health care centers, nursing homes, restaurants, and work places in general don’t say to hell with it before we have a higher percentage of immunizations.
Mish
“Rolling the dice”, lol, an “economist” who does not understand data? Sorry do you know there were 0 flu deasths in the UK this year?
When you have Lauren Boepert agreeing with you, you know that you have just entered the looney bin. I guess Q told Abbott the mental cripple to open the state!
Right as the first cluster of P1 and B117 is hitting. April is going to be an utter sh**show in Tejas, Florida, etc.
If we can get another 250k deaths, then the MSM can start comparing the death total to all of the Civil War! [lol]
Comparing Covid deaths to deaths in war is a false comparison. Wars are manmade and pandemics are nature made but it gets clicks. I notice that media bends over backwards not to compare Covid to the most logical event and that is the 1918 Flu pandemic which killed multiples of those of Covid.
“1918 Flu pandemic which killed multiples of those of Covid”
Not in the US. And this is with the benefit of modern medicine.
“In the US, about 28% of the population of 105 million became infected, and 500,000 to 850,000 died (0.48 to 0.81 percent of the population).”
Compared to about 0.17% against the total population for Covid currently. The MSM has a goal in mind and that is to scaremonger in the hope of driving up their viewership. Somebody should sue them and force them to report valid comparisons.
I’ve argued this point in other forums and by writing directly to reporters and news sources. I often get accused of proffering misinformation or having no respect for the dead and dying. [lol]
Those making these decisions are least likely to suffer the consequences if they are wrong. Dr. Osterholm from CIDRAP says as long as there is wood (unvaccinated people) the fire will burn. And like actual fires, they can be somewhat unpredictable what direction they go.
why did we need masks two months ago but not now? Biden is right. This is Neanderthal thinking that will result in lives lost.
Why do we need 2 masks now, if masks worked?
70% of Covid patients at 11 academic clinics during July 2020, said they always wore a mask during the 2 weeks prior to their Covid symptoms. Wearing a mask did not prevent them from getting Covid.
Do you know how filters work?
I know that wearing a mask did not prevent those patients from contracting Covid.
Top pathologist Dr. Roger Hodkinson: “Masks are utterly useless. There is no evidence base for their effectiveness whatsoever.” “Paper masks and fabric masks are simply virtue signalling.”
Consumer masks are lucky to provide 10-20% effective filtering – and that assumes that they are work tightly & properly, which few people do. Stop deluding yourself.
Here’s an article to read. It’s long enough that you can take some time from random posting and perhaps at the end come away actually learning something.
Masking: A Careful Review of the Evidence
Paul E. Alexander MSc PhD et al.
– February 11, 2021
Reading Time: 39 minutes
The question on whether to wear a face mask or not during the Covid-19 pandemic remains emotional and contentious. Why? This question about the utility of face coverings (which has taken on a talisman-like life) is now overwrought with steep politicization regardless of political affiliation (e.g. republican or liberal/democrat).
Importantly, the evidence just is and was not there to support mask use for asymptomatic people to stop viral spread during a pandemic. While the evidence may seem conflicted, the evidence (including the peer-reviewed evidence) actually does not support its use and leans heavily toward masks having no significant impact in stopping spread of the Covid virus.
….
I applaud Texas and Mississippi for acting as a control, imperfect though it may be, in this grand experiment. If the result is fewer Texans and Mississippians, oh well.
I’m in Texas and will gladly report back.
I find it crazy, I have been a part of this blog community for more than 15 years. This has always been a skeptical audience.
With this RONA stuff, suddenly everyone trusts the experts?
Has anyone actually read the details of the “vaccines.” Do you guys understand statistically what the “95% effective” rate means? The actual limitations and efficacy of PCR testing.
It’s like the Libertarian crew suddenly feared mortality?
Living in fear is not living at all.
Which circles back to the initial point.
Encroachment on the choice of the individual.
Herd statistics that the herd does not understand or care to read objectively and so they follow the mandates of the leaders they do not trust.
There is a whole lot more to living than just existing, or being alive.
Most people don’t even begin to understand that, and that’s ok too.
Oh Wow Mish, do I understand that making a statement, and then changing your mind is a lie?
I interpret the Fauci statement, and really any statement as being about personal knowledge, i.e., “There is no reason that I know of for people to wear masks”. He isn’t all knowing, and certainly any statement without that addition (“that I know of”) would be interpreted as false by someone.
This is an exagerration, to call the statement and the walk back evidence of a lie.
What about, “When the facts change, I change my mind, what do you do sir?”.
Addendum added on the lie
The “science” prior to Covid, from the study of various viruses, was that wearing a mask did not reduce the spread of the virus. What changed was not that wearing a mask prevents you from catching Covid, but rather than that wearing a mask gives you a smaller initial dose, and thus a better chance of a mild case. This is particularly true of Covid because with a Covid infection, Covid has ways of disrupting your immune system. With a big initial dose Covid gets a head start, and has a better chance of winning.
Yes and not leaving your house gives you a better chance of not being run over by a car.
Fauci admitted he lied !
Folks can still wear a mask and social distance to protect themselves if they choose to, they’re not being told they have to stop.
My concern has to do with my place of business, where I’d like to keep it mandatory until good evidence suggests it’s no longer necessary.
One year ago, I made a decision to keep treating patients, knowing that I might die as a result of my decision. It was not an easy decision or one I made lightly, but I felt I had an obligation to keep doing my job.
As it turned out, these simple public health measures protected me, my employees, and the general public we serve. They work, we proved it, by not getting sick or making anybody sick. I’d like to keep doing what works……for the time being.
Surely you can still keep it mandatory at least I haven’t heard otherwise. Maybe those extra measures could become standard for businesses like yours if it patients find it more comfortable. Myself I would prefer to keep it because I have always felt a bit uncomfortable with a dentist who breaths in my face.
It’s been standard of care worldwide for dentists to wear masks personally while treating patients, since roughly 1985, when we were hit with the AIDS epidemic. That’s actually what led to the blood borne pathogens guidelines from the CDC that finally came out in 1993. Since then, infection control in dental offices has been very good in most places. Not everywhere, of course.
I am talking about plastic shields. My dentist has always worn masks and googles and all that but now he surely uses shields.
Survey says masks plus goggles are better than a shield. I never wear a face shield. I have these groovy new surgical loupes with soft silicone eye shields that attach to the frames with magnets. I have gone to surgical gowns and caps, which we didn’t use to wear….and imho it’s probably overkill, but it makes everybody feel safer.
You should be able to continue to require masks at your place of business. I don’t why that wouldn’t be the case. You as the owner set the rules and as long as they are consistent you should be OK. That’s no different than how other businesses like construction set safety rules for what equipment must be worn.
As for patients, you can require them to wear masks in the waiting room. For those who don’t want to wear masks, you can tell them they can wait outside in their car until it’s time to be in the chair where they won’t need a mask. Seems fairly straightforward.
Hehehe.
We haven’t allowed people to even sit in the waiting room since last May. They all sit it their cars until time to be seated, and they are all required to wear a mask going in and out.
The problem comes in when people read the Governor’s tweet that says “100% open everywhere. No masks required.”
Trust me, it will be a problem.
I wish Texas well. I vote in Florida which has been pretty open for a while now and they like it. The state is full of people from lockdown states fleeing the lockdowns in their home states too. If Biden said the truth then by May we will have 300 million doses. Do the math and you see that in the next two months or so just about everybody who is even remotely in danger will have been vaccinated. The risk window is rapidly closing. Those who don’t want the vaccine will be the only ones left and they made their choice. Opening up now is not a rash decision as it seems unless of course Biden doesn’t deliver.
The real mysteries are more interesting now. It seems Covid has killed Influenza. That’s an overstatement of course but it is not because of Flu cases being misclassified as Covid. The tests show that Influenza is almost non-existent this year even in countries who have been free of Covid like Australia. It is worldwide. You might assume social distancing is at work here but that is more a rationalization than fact. There are going to be some very interesting papers coming out about this in the near future. By that time media interest will have moved to other things and the real scientific business can proceed without all the stupid fluff. I am looking forward to the day.
“You might assume social distancing is at work here but that is more a rationalization than fact.”
What is that? Most of the world has been masking and following better hand washing protocols than has ever been the case. Why shouldn’t that have a big effect on flu?
Flu and covid spread the same way, so if something stops the flu, it should also stop covid.
And it does. It’s proven to work. Your clinging to your anti-mask religion is touching but irrelevant.
The flu has an R0 of about 1.2, while Covid is up about 3.5, last I heard. If you reduce the spread of both diseases by 25%, the R0 of the flu drops to 0.9, which being under 1.0, means that the flu will die out. Meanwhile, the R0 of Covid drops to 2.3, still more than enough to rampage through the population. Stopping the flu is not particularly difficult. Stopping Covid it nigh unto impossible.
So, it stopping the flu is so easy, why don’t we do it every year? Well, maybe we learned something in this pandemic, and in future years we’ll do less handshakes, and more hand sanitizing, and maybe the flu will become much less of a problem.
The answer is we don’t know yet. It is a scientific fallacy to assume. You need proof. If all the world followed those protocols then maybe we have something here but the whole world does not follow these practices . You can even say most of the world does not follow them yet Influenza everywhere has dropped to quasi-inexistence. That is the mystery and it is an important one. We need to know why because we have to know if it will come back. There are Influenza strains in the past that were worse than Covid.
We don’t know for sure….but it is a very reasonable assumption that COVID precautions had a lot to do with our “down year” in flu.
It’s also possible some flu cases were misdiagnosed as COVID….although I doubt that’s a very big number.
In order to do the science you have to make a hypothesis and then try to disprove it, right? Isn’t that how science is supposed to work? That’s what I got taught.
Well, my hypothesis is that good hand washing did a lot to reduce flu, as did masking and social distancing, insofar as it was observed.
They were worried about a double-whammy from Covid and Flu developing in Fall so they made tests to specifically look for Flu. It was done in a rigorous manner and they were expecting something and they saw almost inexistent Flu presence. It is a true mystery. The most reasonable hypothesis doesn’t seem to be true. It is not even sure that there is causation. Anyway there are people working on it and the answer will come eventually. A list of new hypothesises would be a long one and they all have to be researched.
It’s only a mystery to people who think masks don’t work and covid is the same as the flu.
It is not a mystery, not is it even unexpected. Back in March, which was the peak flu season in Singapore, they reported a grand total of 0 flu cases. Then, over the summer, the peak flu season in the southern hemisphere, there were virtually no flu cases in Australia or New Zealand. What would have been unexpected if is there had been many flu cases in the US this year.
So happy for the people in Texas and Missouri. Florida, where I live, which led in terms of being most open will be the next state.
It will be interesting to see how long it takes the other states (and countries) to follow suit once they realize there aren’t mass deaths in the street.
It looks to me by what I can see online that the medical and dental community in Florida is still requiring social distancing and masking in the clinics and doctors offices and emergency rooms, which strikes me as a very good policy.
Is this incorrect?
That’s what I’d like to see here for a while yet. We’ve been OPEN since May 2020…but we’ve been taking massive precautions. While the current trends in new infections looks promising, it would be unwise to stop social distancing and masking in places where spreading COVID has a high probability of occurring.
I haven’t been to the dentist since August. At that time you had to wear a mask in the waiting room but obviously not the chair. They also took your temperature with those laser guns. So I am not sure if it’s still a requirement (my daughter due to go next month so I’ll see then).
When I was covid tested in January the walk in clinic required a mask.
Had a cleaning today in Florida, everyone masked up, few in the waiting room. Some weird contraption that resembled an old salon hair dryer next to the chair.
Thanks. Those hairdryer things are evacuating devices invented for removing fumes from a workspace in industrial welding applications….most of the ones I looked at. No real data on how good they work for dentistry, but many are trying them.
Hope that device works. Dentist just called to let me know my hygienist didn’t feel well this morning and ended up testing positive for covid. She was masked the whole time and wore a shield when blasting.
This is obviously exactly what we worry about. You are probably safe…..but of course it’s possible you were exposed. I would appreciate a report back next week if you can.
Right now Florida has a 7.8% positive test rate, only 19% ICU capacity, over 31,000 deaths and currently an average of 132 deaths per day. Not exactly a success story.
Yes but what are those numbers compared to California, a state that is mostly still in full lockdown. You need something to compare against to know whether it’s a success or not.
Last I heard, I think it was down to around 3.6%.
Weeding the herd of the weak.
Positive tests may be false due to too high cycle thresholds on PCR tests.
But this aspect might be too complex for you to understand.
Florida is 29th in the country in cases/million at 89,586, and is 27th in deaths/million at 1456. Not an an astonishing success, but also not a miserable failure. They are basically in the middle of the pack. California, by comparison is 26th in cases/million at 90,611, and 30th in deaths at 1338, so really, it’s almost dead even with Florida.
A year of propaganda and everyone forgot how to be normal. Everyone clinging to zero-science mask mandates, y’all want to keep wearing masks a year after this whole thing started?
You know all RCT research on mask efficacy has shown zero benefit? They’re all on the NIH website, and none of them show any benefit to wearing masks. And why is everyone claiming a face covering such as a bandana or gaiter could have any effect on viral transmission?
Liberals are are scared there won’t be a spike in covid cases in TX and MS.
Is everyone vaccinated? Right call? Hardly
Vaccination doesn’t PREVENT Covid, it only [supposedly] reduces the probability that you might wind up in the hospital. But you can still get sick and you can still transmit the virus while you are sick, just like with the flu.
I believe I pointed this out to you in the past.
Really? Thanks the enlightenment
Gov. Abotts ill conceived decision could very well lead to thousands of new deaths and tens of thousands of hospitalizations.
Great times to be in the probate business!
Thousands of Jackson [MS] residents enter third week without running water
I could make some crack about the Jackson city council, which has five black members out of seven total, or about their young progressive-activist mayor, Chokwe Antar Lumumba…but I won’t.
Because I think systemic racism is part of the problem in Jackson….not so much now, but for the last 150 or more years. Racism does exist, and it has real effects. This is one of them, in my view.
Poverty plays too, in Mississippi.
It will be interesting to see if the new guard can fix anything. It won’t be easy, and I don’t expect a whole lot. But I wish them the best.
Really, now, Eddie?
Century plus old water system in a city where poor people live and the tax base is pretty low, and you’re restraining yourself from a joke about the black people who have been in charge for a short while?
Mighty white of you.
You think that was racist….that I pointed out that the water problem is NOT the fault of the African-American leadership running the state capital of Mississippi?
Mighty anti-racist of you to put me right in my fragile white place.
Well, let me point out that “short while” is getting on toward 30 years, since the last EIGHT mayors of Jackson have been African-American….and they’ve had some time to address what were known to be pre-existing issues.
Lumumba, whose father was also mayor some years back, campaigned on a platform of addressing infrastructure problems. I hope he can fast track that.
Why was there an impulse that you needed to restrain?
Because there is a fairly long history now of black-run, black majority (and even near parity) cities with an ascendant class of black leadership…..never accomplishing anything they set out to do.
And…such cities experience an awful lot of political scandal around corruption and graft.
Would you like examples? Because I can list many.
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Gov. Greg Abbott credits vaccinations in Texas with allowing the state to reopen, but COVID-19 data shows the state has higher numbers now than when he initially issued pandemic orders in October 2020.
…the latest COVID-19 data on the Johns Hopkins COVID Tracking Project shows right now the positivity rate in Texas is at 13.5%. That percentage is higher than what it was on Oct. 7, when Abbott issued his COVID-19 restrictions orders. The seven-day average of deaths per day is at 227, which is a 91% increase from Oct. 7.
He must be banking on the J&J vaccine, which should be available very soon in large quantities…..so that the vaccinations can ramp up to a higher level. But he’s putting the cart before the horse.
Many will still get the virus in Texas / Missouri AND other states that remain closed. Perhaps the most vulnerable to death are already vaxxed.
The question is, how many will die from the virus. If you just get sick for a week or so and don’t die or require hospitalization that seems a very reasonable tradeoff for being fully open (it’s essentially a normal flu season).
Anyway, people in those states can chose to remain isolated and mask up when going out (or order from Amazon) if they are worried about their health.
“texas is open for business” – we will keep a light on for you – /s
Man up and take off the mask. You mighty manginas can move to California if your too sacred.
Here in Florida we hardly wear masks anymore. Only a few large businesses (Walmart, Target, etc.) require that you wear a mask. Florida’s track record with covid has been better than similarly large states like California despite the average age in Florida being much higher. Masks don’t work.
If a state issues driver’s licenses, is the state responsible for traffic accidents? Did these governors ban the use of masks by those who wish to wear one (or two)?
Driving without a license is punishable in all states.
Public health measures ARE public business.
Obviously masks are not banned. If you want to wear one, go ahead. It’s just no longer mandatory to wear one.
In other words, it’s your choice based on your personal circumstances (been vaxed or not, how old/healthy are you etc).
But can stores still require masks to enter on their own, just as with shirts and shoes?
My take is that Abbott is trying to take the attention off the power grid debacle.
I am waiting to see how the state medical and dental boards come down on this. The dental board just issued new COVID guidelines a few days ago that eased a few things…..I don’t think its wise for doctor’s offices to go back to the old normal.
We will of course now have to deal with defiant people who won’t want to mask….and they will be quoting the governor…never mind it isn’t even supposed to start until next week.
This is very premature in my estimation, and it will probably trigger some super-spreader events. They haven’t even offered the vaccine to teachers yet, which I think should be done prior to fully opening schools.
Opening the state could be justified for economic reasons but saying no one has to wear masks is stupid and dangerous politics. He’s probably just trying to push the news cycle past the snow storm.
Like everything in this year long tale, we’ll just have to see how it plays out.
Downward trend from vaccine and restrictions and masks, upward trend from cutting off restrictions on mandatory mask, and curveballs coming in from variants.
I suspect the timing is due to making the people forget the February freeze follies.
Bury the news cycle.
I agree. We’ll have to see how it plays out. I don’t think there will be an uptick in cases. When states have hit about 10-12% positive ratio, the cases have dropped, and not bounced back up, even with the variants. Mississippi is at 10%, while Texas is at 9.2%. My personal opinion is that the way Covid is acting, it is acting as if herd immunity has been nearly reached. Thus, for every infection that was detected, there probably have been 6 that when undetected, meaning that Mississippi is at about 70%, and Texas is at about 63%. Add to those 8-10 percent who have been vaccinated, perhaps half of which have had Covid, and you get to about 75% with immunity. That’s not enough for cases to vanish, but I wouldn’t expect a big boom, either. Rather I expect cases to continue to fall gradually.
It’s worth pointing out that saying “We’re open!” and getting people to behave as they did pre-pandemic are too different things. People are still going to stay home, and they are going to social distance. Regardless of what the government says or does, it’s going to be awhile before things are back to normal, and even then, it will be a new normal, not the same as before the pandemic.