Essential worker fears as Texas, Miss. drop mask edicts

The masks came off almost immediately, even faster than Alexis De Los Santos had feared.

Fewer than half the shoppers who came through her grocery checkout line in Corpus Christi, Texas, this week wore face coverings. Many told her they were relieved Republican Gov. Greg Abbott was lifting the mask mandate and declaring the state “open 100 percent.” Some said they felt like they could finally breathe again.

“It was like, wow, that escalated quickly,” said De Los Santos, 19, who works at the Texas grocery chain H-E-B, where customers will be “strongly encouraged” but no longer required to wear masks when the state mandate lifts Wednesday. “I’ve had family members die from covid, so it personally offends me when people don’t wear their masks. But I bite my tongue and keep working.”

After nearly a year on the front lines of the pandemic, retail and restaurant workers in Texas and Mississippi — where governors this week said they would ease a number of coronavirus-related restrictions, including mask requirements — say they feel especially vulnerable now. They’ve worked through shutdowns and watched colleagues fall ill and die of the virus.

The stakes, they say, feel even higher now. They’re not yet eligible for the vaccine even though they’re surrounded by hundreds, sometimes thousands, of customers a day. In interviews with more than a dozen workers, many said they’ve considered quitting.

“It’s like pulling the rug out from under essential workers — the very people who need our unambiguous support and protection — just as we’re turning a corner,” said David Abrams, professor of social and behavioral science at New York University’s School of Global Public Health. “It puts people who are already in a precarious position in a terrible bind.”

At least 175 grocery workers have died and thousands more have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to labor unions, advocacy groups and media reports, though tracking is spotty and incomplete. And though they were celebrated as “heroes” at the beginning of the pandemic, retail workers have largely been left off vaccine priority lists and lag other essential workers in hourly pay, health benefits and sick leave.

In Corpus Christi, De Los Santos says H-E-B has been proactive about placing protective barriers at cash registers and allowing workers ample time off if they feel sick.