Texas and Mississippi: National embarrassments
(AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
Leo Carney, kitchen manager at McElroy’s Harbor House in Biloxi on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, said the removal of coronavirus restrictions will disproportionately impact Black residents — many of whom are essential workers, Friday, March 5, 2021. Carney said he would feel better with restrictions being removed if essential workers had access to the coronavirus vaccine.
Something shameful happened in our country last week: The governors of Texas and Mississippi lifted the mask mandates and announced the reopening of the states to 100%.
Way to go –– You have set the entire nation backward on its goal to placate the spread of the coronavirus just when we were starting to gain a lead.
Everyone knows the famous fable “The Tortoise and the Hare.” We are the hare that grows overly confident in his lead in the race so he decides to take a break. COVID-19 is the tortoise: slow but has a chance at winning because of the foolish hare.
This pandemic is not some looming fantastical monster that requires a bold “You don’t scare me” in order to defeat. It is real, and it takes legitimate and consistent measures to fight off.
I would have liked to believe that we were in the final stretch of ridding our nation of the most dangerous parts of this virus. That hope has been squashed by these decisions from republican politicians who could not handle the pressure from their states’ citizens and their own personal agendas.
In case there are still people who don’t think the virus is dangerous, here is a headline from a CNN Health article: “More people have died from COVID-19 than in the past 5 flu seasons combined. And coronavirus is much more contagious.” Senior news writer Holly Yan provides an overview of COVID-19 and Influenza comparisons, citing data from several sources including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Hopkins University, Harvard Medical.
On March 3, the Texas Department of State Health Services reported an increased average of 4,532 new cases and 226 new fatalities per day over the last week.
Live updates from the Wall Street Journal and the CDC show that 15.5% of the Texas population and 16.7% of the Mississippi population have been given at least one dose of the vaccine. These percentages are among the eleven lowest in the country, including Louisiana at 16.2%.
Yes – vaccinations are instilling hope into citizens nationwide, and that is wonderful. However, the vaccines that have been developed and are currently being administered to millions nationwide may not be effective in fighting off the emerging variants of the virus. The current vaccine is not the end-all-be-all solution, especially since only about 30% of the country has been vaccinated. The vaccine is another tool. It does not cancel out the need for masks and other safety measures.
The governors have left many of their businesses, particularly restaurants, vulnerable to unsafe environments that risk the loss of customers whether they choose to continue the mask requirement or not.
Duncan Agnew with the Texas Tribune spoke with businessperson Anne Ng of Bakery Lorraine in San Antonio. She and many other restaurant owners in the state have maintained the mask mandates within their establishments.
“By repealing the mandate, the government is putting everyone at risk, and foodservice workers are sadly at the front lines in facing potential hostility from folks who will refuse to respect our mask policy,” Ng said. “We don’t deserve that.”
You can disagree with me over the morality of the governors’ decisions, but you cannot dispute the reports from the CDC or state departments of health. If you are okay with lessening––or completely removing––the restrictions while people are still dying, that says more about you than me.
We can only hope that John Bel Edwards has a bit more sense than Greb Abbott and Tate Reeves and holds off on fully reopening the state until we see more deceleration of cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
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Brynn Lundy Arriago began working for The Lion's Roar in the fall of 2019, her first semester at Southeastern, and now serves as Graduate Assistant. From...
Lauren Wicker • Mar 16, 2021 at 1:07 pm
Hi Brynn, I read this article and was a bit disappointed that the information presented was quite subjective. I do understand that this was published under the opinion tab. However, I would like to ask what ground rules journalists and communicators have the responsibility to follow when publishing information? Do you think that journalists should only publish non-partisan information and refrain from incorporating personal opinion into the message? Is professional journalism any different from microblogging if the message has no quality standard? As a business student, I feel that it is always of utmost importance to report objective facts and separate emotions and personal opinions from truth. Obviously, there is a time and place for us to make our own judgements and decisions on what to believe based on our feelings and opinions. However, formal published articles to inform the community should be unbiased. If they are biased, I believe that the bias should be explicitly stated so as not to mix fact with opinion.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yikes • Mar 11, 2021 at 5:12 pm
This article is gonna get a yikes from me. America was founded on freedom; you wanna wear a face diaper? Fine. You don’t? Fine. Most people don’t wear these things “correctly” anyway. The only thing that’s shameful is the lack of research that went into this article lol.
Charlotte Bradford • Mar 9, 2021 at 9:20 pm
I am so tired of people being so damn racist. Why can’t we just say we are Americans and fight and help each other. If someone, you think, needs a ride to somewhere give it to them. Pretend like the olden days before all the freebes when you helped your neighbor. Wake up!
Kerri Prest • Mar 9, 2021 at 1:24 pm
This is so silly. The virus is never going to be completely gone. We cannot and should not try to vaccinate against every scary thing. People die, whether it be from a virus, cancer, heart attack, car accident, etc. You cannot vaccinate against all of those things, nor should we try to keep people around forever. What would happen to the human population without a vaccine? Some people will die, others (most) will contract the virus and then their bodies will fight it off and they will be immune and will pass down those genes to their offspring. Amazing, isn’t it? Building a healthy and capable immune system is what we should strive for. That includes consuming nutritious foods and staying hydrated. Focus on that and the stronger humans will survive and make for a stronger species. Let’s think about the bigger picture here and remove the air restrictors from our faces.
Corbyn Mf Blouin • Mar 9, 2021 at 12:56 pm
Oh also, nobody wants that vaccine. you can keep that to yourself and quit trying to influence people to take it!
corbyn mf blouin • Mar 9, 2021 at 12:49 pm
I have also had enough of the liberal questions i am required to answer to get a good grade! LEAVE POLITICS OUT OF MY EDUCATION!
Corbyn mf Blouin • Mar 9, 2021 at 12:46 pm
I have had enough of wearing these damn fresh air killers. Our body is like a car, our mouths are the exhaust. We are supposed to breath out all the toxins (carbon dioxide), instead we the people are being forced to breathe in these chemicals because people are brainwashed. You selu need to stop being so liberalized and brainwashed and actually give a shit ab your teachers and students health. I SAID WHAT I SAID
Derrick • Mar 9, 2021 at 12:27 pm
I’m not walking around with this useless face diapers much longer. I can no longer tolerate intrusive and unconstitutional policies that are only effective at making people more depressed and shuttering small businesses. Our cultural elites don’t even follow their own stupid rules. Nancy Pelosi went to a salon without a mask, Gavin Newsom ate at an indoor restaurant while making indoor dining illegal. The rules keep changing too! The double standard is ridiculous. I will no longer allow my life to be controlled by the so-called “science” (the same science that tells us boys can pretend to be girls and there are a zillion genders btw)