Authored by Amy Lauren Fairchild, Cheryl Healton, Sandro Galea, David Holtgrave And James W. Curran.
Pandemics demand responsible public health policy. Even as we — hopefully — see the end of the COVID-19 pandemic in sight, the pathway that Texas and some other states have laid out as we enter the endgame stage of the pandemic puts us on a dangerous path to resurgence.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed an association between lifting mask requirements — including reopening restaurants for indoor dining, which is a type of mask requirement relaxation — with an increase in both coronavirus cases and deaths.
Yet Texas planned to lift its mask mandates and allow a full return to business as usual as of yesterday. In announcing the move, Gov. Greg Abbott urged individual responsibility and adherence to medical advice, but a mask is now optional rather than an urgently needed mandate to save lives. Mississippi followed in short order, and other states plan to follow suit, including Alabama on April 9.
Read the full piece on Governing.