Gov. Abbott, now is not the time to ‘reopen’
Removing statewide mask mandate will put Texans at risk
On March 2, Gov. Greg Abbott announced the issuance of a new executive order, which “reopens” Texas. The new order, which takes effect Wednesday, March 10, also terminates the statewide mask mandate.
As a health system, we respect the governor and recognize that he has an incredibly difficult job right now; however, we disagree with the terms and the timing of this new order, and strongly encourage him to reconsider this decision.
At Memorial Hermann, we have no intention of changing any of our policies and practices related to COVID-19 at this time. We will still require masks for everyone who enters our facilities, as we believe this practice is in the best interest of our front-line workers, our patients and our community — all those who we are dedicated to and obligated to protect.
Our position is based on hard data and science. It aligns with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the advice of leading epidemiologists, infectious disease specialists, as well as our national, state and local medical and scientific leaders, to leave masking mandates in place for now. Social distancing and wearing masks are practices that are proven to save lives. As health care providers, we have witnessed their benefits firsthand. In fact, Abbott’s decision to mandate the wearing of masks last July has been one of our strongest and most effective weapons in the fight against COVID-19 thus far. Interestingly, the governor actually acknowledges this in his new order. While we hope that this order does not lead to another spike in COVID-19 cases, we believe the evidence suggests that it will.
Since our most recent COVID-19 surge peaked in January, our numbers have come down, but they remain 2.5 times what they were just last Thanksgiving. We agree with the governor about the factors that have helped drive those numbers down: good public health pandemic behaviors (masking, social distancing and hand-washing); the rising levels of natural immunity (from those who have already had COVID-19); and the small, but growing impact of vaccinations. However, we still have a long way to go before we reach the ultimate goal of herd immunity and an end to this pandemic.
As of March 3, Memorial Hermann has vaccinated approximately 115,000 individuals. Across Harris County, approximately half a million local residents have been given their first dose of the vaccine, as of March 1. This translates to approximately 14 percent of residents in Harris County age 16 and older. This is a great start, and we strongly support vaccination for all Texans, but until we have more supply and can vaccinate even more of our population, we must continue to utilize the proven public health measures we know have helped us limit virus transmission thus far.
Additionally, we are deeply concerned about the timing of this decision, especially as we have just learned that all of the major new COVID-19 variants, which seem to be more dangerous and more transmissible, have now been identified in Houston; in fact, we are the first major U.S. city to confirm that all of these new variants are active in our community. Even more, for the first time in many weeks, the number of new cases reported around the world is higher than it was a week ago. Finally, we are gravely concerned that upcoming spring break gatherings will result in surges similar to those caused by holiday get-togethers, or worse.
The pandemic is not over, and our safety measures should not be, either. We hope that by continuing to practice the proven safety measures and encouraging others to do so as well — and as more and more people in the Greater Houston area become vaccinated — we can happily support lifting masking restrictions in the future, maybe even as soon as several months from now. But we feel that issuing this order at this time, considering the current environment, is premature. In the Greater Houston area, it is clear that COVID-19 is not yet under community control.
As health care providers, and as human beings, we have an ethical and moral responsibility to care for our community by each doing our part to keep ourselves and those around us healthy and safe. In times of crisis, Houstonians continue to prove time and again that we will step up and do what needs to be done to take care of each other. We were called upon to do it as recently as just a few weeks ago, and now it is time for us to do it again, with or without a state mandate.