As you may have heard, the mask mandate in Texas was lifted March 10. Texas Governor Greg Abbott decided to open up the state completely, allowing businesses to open to 100% capacity and lifting many COVID relief strategies.

 Lifting restrictions and going back to life as if it were normal is a bad idea. When Abbott lifted the COVID precautions, less than 9% of Texans have been vaccinated, and there are reports of new, more aggressive COVID variants that are spreading as well. Abbot lifted the precautions due to the state having the lowest number of cases seen in months, but it may still be a little too soon.

Removing the COVID Relief Practices once the numbers go down is like if a wildfire was slowly going out, so the firemen celebrated it was going out and stopped, despite the fire not being completely out. It can still spread, and most likely will, but now with an easier transmission. Some areas are going to continue to require masks and safety practices, but with the mask mandate removed, many people are most likely going to disregard many safety recommendations. I’ve already seen people celebrating the removal of the mask mandate, which only reinforces that some people are not going to follow the safety practices that have still been encouraged.

Masks are meant to protect you and the people around you. They act as a barrier for transmission from person to person, but if people aren’t wearing masks, and not following the precautions and procedures laid out to protect them, the virus will only spread even more. An increase in cases will lead to, once again, more lockdowns with even heavier restrictions because so many people  will become sick due to the fact that there are no more safe COVID practices.