Last month, Texas governor Greg Abbott found himself in a bit of hot water over his shambolic response to the Lone Star state’s power crisis, which largely involved going on Fox News and blaming the Green New Deal—a proposal that has not been turned into law— for the fact that his constituents were freezing to death. Now, as millions of people in Texas deal with unimaginable conditions as a result of the power failure—including 390,000 who have no access to clean water—Abbott has decided that the best thing he can do for his constituents is to prematurely declare “mission accomplished” in the fight against COVID-19, and send potentially thousands of people to an early grave.

On Tuesday, the governor announced that he was ending Texas‘s mask mandate and allowing businesses to reopen at 100% capacity by March 10. (Shortly thereafter, Mississippi governor Tate Reeves also announced that his state would no longer require people to wear masks, and that businesses will be able to operate at full capacity.) Abbott’s decision to effectively fully return to pre-pandemic normality, while the pandemic is still raging, was reminiscent of the time last spring when he lifted COVID restrictions—which, you guessed it, caused cases to spike in the weeks that followed. While Texas has recently seen a slowdown in infections, just 6.57% of the state has been fully vaccinated as of Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University, far short of the level it needs to achieve herd immunity. Also, as you may have heard, new and extremely contagious variants of COVID-19 have been spreading throughout the country, threatening to undo, per CDC director Rochelle Walensky, “the hard-earned ground we have gained.” In other words, Abbott and Reeves are dumbasses who would rather score political points with the anti-mask, anti-science brigade than avoid extending the pandemic (and the country’s death toll) for who knows how long.

Responding to the Texas decision, Jonathan Reiner, M.D., a professor of medicine at George Washington University, told CNN’s Erin Burnett: “This is a gigantic mistake.… We have seen this movie and it doesn’t turn out well.” On CNN’s The Situation Room, Leana Wen, M.D., a former Baltimore health commissioner, called the move “just irresponsible,” warning that “it could undo all the incredible work that we have done thus far,” and adding that if Abbott really cared about getting businesses back on their feet—not to mention, reopening schools—he would continue the mask mandate. Judge Ricardo Samaniego, who is from El Paso County, which has been been hit hard by the coronavirus, tweeted that 280 bodies were in the county’s holding facility and that Abbott’s move was akin to lifting the requirement to wear seat belts. “Our community would have appreciated his condolences to the families who have lost loved ones,” he said, “and public health would have appreciated if he would have focused on the dangers of a new variation of the virus which is quickly emerging.”

On Tuesday at the White House, while unveiling a plan for pharmaceutical giant Merck to make a vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson, Joe Biden implored the country not to start acting like COVID-19 is no longer a threat just because vaccines are being administered. “There is light at the end of the tunnel, but we cannot let our guard down now to ensure victory is inevitable; we can’t assume that,” he said. “We must remain vigilant, act fast and aggressively, and look out for one another.” Unfortunately, that message was apparently not received by the likes of Abbott and Reeves whose announcements will undoubtedly lead not just to the deaths of Texans and Mississippians but people across the country. Per CNN:

The looming openings are paradoxically a symptom of Biden’s success as confidence grows in the availability of vaccines, which have rolled out fast since he took office. But experts are warning that opening too quickly could provide the vast petri dish that new variants of COVID-19 need to thrive. Those variants are often not just more infectious, but they also could make the vaccines that are expected to pave the way out of the yearlong crisis less effective. That means that states like Texas and Mississippi, which were slow to adopt steps like mask wearing, are not just risking their own citizens but all other Americans too.

“I have to be honest with you, this fight is far from over,” Biden said at the White House, warning that the pandemic could begin to get worse as new variants, like those first found in the U.K. and South Africa, spread.

Meanwhile, last week the House passed the president’s $1.9 trillion COVID rescue package—which would extend unemployment benefits, aid for small businesses, and provide cash to open schools and build out infrastructure to administer more vaccines—without a single Republican vote.

It’s almost as though the GOP is the party of mass death (plus deranged conspiracy theories and attempted coups, can’t forget that).

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