Texas Governor Greg Abbot’s March 2 announcement ending the eight-month-long mask mandate and opening business capacities up to 100%, will be made effective on Wednesday, March 10. Under no circumstance can any county in the state of Texas arrest anyone for not wearing a mask.

This is the largest lift on any COVID-related restriction since the beginning of the pandemic. A decrease in hospitalizations and an increase in vaccinations, which will eventually be available to every adult in America, contributed to the decision.

Governor Abbot has been extremely irresponsible in how he handled the most deadly virus in American history and now he’s playing with the lives of Texas citizens right as the light at the end of the tunnel is appearing. This decision would’ve been more appropriate if we weren’t months away from the point that every American adult would be available to get the vaccine.

Biden claimed that every American adult would be able to get the vaccine by the end of May. There is no challenge to the fact that vaccines will be available for everyone in around 100 days. It’s very important to maintain that, but with the lift on masks and business returning to 100% capacity, the chances of another spike are increased dramatically. There is no logical reasoning to not hold off on the lift other than simple greed and attempting to get Texas an economic head start.

Abbot claims that this lift is for Texans to “decide their own destiny,” but this isn’t the case. people have to take weekly trips to the grocery store or other locations and a lack of safety enforcement will put them at risk. With conflicting opinions on the effectiveness of wearing a mask and a lack of enforcement, everyone is put more at risk.

Only 12.9% of people of the Texas population have received one or more doses of the COVID vaccine meaning the other 87.1% of Texas citizens are vulnerable to the virus. While many think that wearing your mask is protecting yourself, it is for the protection around you. You can still contract the virus while wearing a mask but can’t spread it as easily if you wear one, this is why it’s so important for everyone to be responsible for the betterment of everyone.

There are some good things about this, which is that people can finally get a taste of what normal feels like again in almost one year, which is something that some people mentally needed because of the toll it took on them, but with that benefit comes to a lot of negatives. The lack of a mask will cause the delay of regular openings and returning to normal life, and it’s a pretty close consensus on the majority wanting to go back to the way it was early last year. While this might be very good news to some and may seem like things are returning to normal, this is just pushing back what we actually want as a nation, which is to put this pandemic behind us. In order to achieve this, we must make some sacrifices.

The lift of the mask is a bad move by the state of Texas and could provide some drastic and harmful things looking forward into the future. And if this shows anything about the Governor, it is that he shows a premature and reckless behavior regarding the pandemic.