On March 2, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said in a speech that his state is lifting its mask mandate entirely, making it the largest state to no longer require its citizens to wear masks in daily life and one of the first places to return to life like it was before the pandemic. 

Reopening is needed for small businesses to have customers again and be able to simply remain open. As I have personally traveled around California as it has begun to reopen, it’s sad to see well-known, loved businesses vanish because of lockdowns and the inability to get the foot traffic they needed to survive.  

This is a stark difference to what the national standard for regulations currently are and could have potentially harmful repercussions as the United States attempts to re-open the country and continue to roll out the COVID-19 vaccine. But, with the number of small businesses that have permanently closed and the number of struggling Americans in the country, the rest of the United States should work to follow Texas and begin to re-open. 

“Too many Texans have been sidelined from opportunity,” Abbott said as he announced that all businesses will be allowed to reopen to 100% capacity, via executive orders that he signed to take effect on March 10.

These orders revoke his previous July 2020 executive orders that required Texans to wear masks, thereby invalidating any local mask orders unless written by a county judge for emergency purposes. This has allowed Texas to essentially return to normal activity as it was before COVID-19, re-opening the state entirely. 

Texas is now joining 15 other states that are lifting mask regulations and ridding themselves of mandates that have been aimed at limiting American’s activities due to the virus. 

This form of re-opening is completely different from the way California has been handling the pandemic. While the vaccine is still in the early stages of rollout, and with a reported 11 million Californians that have been fully vaccinated so far, the sunshine state is slowly easing mandates back, only recently allowing restaurants and theme parks to reopen at limited capacity while continuing to wear masks. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom even went as far as saying that Californians should wear two masks as continued worry exists throughout the state. This decision was made after the Centers for Disease Control and federal agencies recommended that we work through getting back into the swing of everyday life, according to a press release on the CDC website for information regarding the vaccine. 

However, as states such as Texas re-open, it is warranted to worry about the potential dangers it could lead to neighboring states potentially following Texas with similar regulation cutbacks.  

At this point of the pandemic, it’s hard to say what the right decision is, different states have had different lockdown orders with varying results. States like Florida, that have no real mandates, have had relatively low case numbers, according to graphs from the New York Times as well as an article by the Wall Street Journal while states like New York and California have experienced some of the highest case numbers in any state, while also experiencing some of the strictest guidelines of any state. 

This shows that it’s hard for us to really understand a virus that is still in heavy research. So, you can see that after a year some may wonder if it was worth shutting down so many businesses and making so many stay home. 

The main reason that Texas is reopening according to Gov. Abbott is to open the economy and give small businesses a chance to get back to work. 

For that reason, I agree that reopening is needed for small businesses to have customers again and be able to simply remain open. As I have personally traveled around California as it has begun to reopen, it’s sad to see businesses that are well known and loved for years vanish because of lockdowns and the inability to get the foot traffic they needed to survive.  

The potential threat to reopen is a risky one that is hard to really know how it will work out for America in the long run. We may see a rise in cases as we move forward, however, at this point the decision to reopen is the best one, as people need to get back to work in order to be able to bring businesses out of the red and above water once again. 

Given the rollout with the vaccine and the growing herd immunity of Americans, the United States is on the upward curve out of the pandemic and is becoming safer for all to be able to live post-pandemic. Only time will tell what our officials will dictate in the coming months as the U.S. works to get back into a post-pandemic way of life.