EDITORIAL
As of March 10, Texas opened up to 100 percent capacity for businesses as well as got rid of the requirement of wearing masks in public. We, as a staff, feel as though Governor Greg Abbott is opening the state too soon. This decision is risky and it is going to derail the progress that the state has made during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recently released a statement where she urged states to refrain from opening too soon because it will undo the months of progress that we have already made.
We completely agree with Walensky and we believe that some of the states are opening faster than they should. More people should be able to get vaccinated before the states think about getting rid of the mask mandate as well as lifting the capacity restrictions.
We, as a society, should be more prepared and safe rather than spontaneous and risky when it comes to dealing with a pandemic and sadly, Abbott has chosen the spontaneous and risky route.
This means that hospitalization rates could increase if this plan backfires and we could possibly end up in the same boat that we were already in at the beginning of the pandemic. Even though businesses are not required to follow Abbott’s decision of lifting the restrictions and ending the mask mandate, it doesn’t mean that having that decision should even be an option yet.
We need to look at how this decision is going to affect the outcome of this pandemic and at this point in time we just are not prepared enough to predict anything about the outcome yet.
One option that the state government could choose instead of the decision that they made is waiting to open Texas all the way back up until a large percentage of our communities are vaccinated and another option is requiring people to wear face masks for only a couple more months.
This will give them time to come up with a solid and well-developed idea of when the state can re-open fully as well as keeping everyone safe in the meantime. This also gives those who want to be vaccinated time to do so and let their bodies adjust to the vaccine as well as making sure the vaccine is in their system.
Just because Abbott wants to reopen the economy completely does not mean that it is a good idea. The state government needs to take a step back and come up with a plan for our society that will ensure the safety of our communities.
Whether it is waiting until a large percentage of our community is vaccinated or continuing to require masks in public for just a couple more months, we need to make sure everyone will be safe rather than all of us being sorry about a reckless decision.
We are all tired of this pandemic and the toll that it has taken on everything, but we can’t give up yet.
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