Gov. Abbott ended Texas mask mandate without input from all his COVID-19 medical advisers
Gov. Greg Abbott’s four medical advisers were not all on board with his move to end the state’s coronavirus restrictions -- or even included in the decision.To get more news about
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“I don’t think this is the right time,” said advisor Mark McClellan, former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, adding he was not consulted before the decision.“Texas has been making some real progress but it’s too soon for full reopening and to stop masking around others,” McClellan said in an email.From the start of the pandemic, Abbott said he would rely on data and doctors to guide state policy. But conflicting opinions from his medical advisers about one of the biggest shifts in state pandemic policy raise questions about how the choice — which has been widely panned by public health experts — was made.
State health commissioner Dr. John Hellerstedt on Wednesday didn’t explicitly answer whether he endorsed the plan ahead of time to end the mask mandate and let businesses fully reopen on March 10. Pressed by state lawmakers, Hellerstedt said he “did not have a personal conversation” with Abbott before the decision, but that his agency is in regular contact with the governor’s staff.
A third advisor, Dr. Parker Hudson of Dell Medical School in Austin, has said he was “not involved in this decision.”
And a fourth said he agreed with the decision, explaining it was initiated by Abbott and rested on the governor’s general comfort level with the pace of vaccinations, other medical improvements, and the notion that Texans know to wear masks and will continue to even without a mandate — an idea refuted by public health research.
“He brought it to us, he talked to us about it, he talked through it,” said Dr. John Zerwas, a vice chancellor with the University of Texas System. “And he said, ‘okay, this is when I feel like it’d be a good time to do it.’”The nation’s top infectious disease experts and President Joe Biden criticized Abbott’s decision to end restrictions next Wednesday, saying it’s premature and warning the move could lead to a new surge in the outbreak that has already killed more than 43,000 Texans.
Former U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Tom Frieden said the reversal of the mask mandate was particularly dangerous and could lead to a decline in their use.
“A mask mandate is about you not inadvertently killing someone,” said Frieden, who served during the Obama administration. “There is no argument for not having a mask mandate.”When asked Wednesday about defying some medical advisers, Abbott said he spoke with Zerwas and Hellerstedt.
“They both agree that because of all the metrics and numbers... now is a very safe time to open,” Abbott said Wednesday during a television interview on KFDX-TV in Wichita Falls. “Texans know how to keep themselves safe and they don’t need government mandates to tell them anymore.”