DALLAS — It’s been nearly a year since Lee Daugherty’s Dallas bar closed due to the novel coronavirus. After March 10, Daugherty and other business owners can open their establishments as Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order allows businesses to resume full operations and ends the requirement of wearing a mask.

“The closure has financially devastated the service industry — bars, restaurants, and many of the workers in it,” Daugherty said. “Individually, I wiped out my savings, and living on unemployment is definitely not a great life, and there’s many facing evictions and stuff like that. But it will be amazing to serve again and amazing to open again provided we do it safely, especially for the workers in keeping them safe because a lot of these people are being forced to work.”

Abbott delivered the news at Montelongo’s Mexican Restaurant during a news conference in Lubbock on Tuesday. The announcement makes Texas the largest state to no longer require masks — a precaution the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention touts as the most effective way to prevent the spread of the virus. In Texas alone, the Department of State Health Services reports more than 43,000 people have died, while at least 500,000 have succumbed to COVID-19 across the United States based on data from the CDC.

“Removing state mandates does not end personal responsibility,” Abbott said. “With this executive order, we are ensuring that all businesses and families in Texas have the freedom to determine their own destiny.”

Abbott went on to say that if hospitalizations stay above 15% for more than seven straight days, judges in those counties can then use “COVID mitigation strategies.” However, he noted that no one could be placed in jail for not following the orders, and penalties could not be imposed for those failing to wear a mask. Despite the end to the state mask mandate, the federal mandate remains in place. A mask must be worn on federal property. Additionally, the CDC issued an order requiring operators and travelers on public transportation to wear a face covering. 

“If restrictions are imposed at the county level, all entities must be allowed to operate at least a 50% capacity,” he said. “More importantly, though, we believe that there will not be the threshold met at hospitalizations for county judges to even consider implementing those strategies, because Texas will continue working collaboratively with all counties to speed the vaccination process.”

For New Yorker turned Texan Philip Joseph Fillion, the decision to open the state seems a bit rushed.

“We need laws like the mask mandate, because it’s human nature not to want to look out for other people and to put our own interests first,” Fillion said. “The governor said, ‘Well, people will do the right thing anyway, because they’re smart,’ but I think the experiences that we’ve had as a country over the last year have proven the opposite — that whenever people aren’t compelled to look out for each other then they’ll do only what pleases themselves.”

In March, Fillion lost his job as a result of the pandemic, prompting his family to move to Texas in August. Now, he’s a musician for the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas.

“I play at a lot of funerals, so I’m very familiar with death and what grieving families look like,” he said. “We know scientifically that this decision is going to lead to quite a lot more deaths, quite a lot more grief and so it’s fundamentally un-Christian to choose to prioritize profit over people’s lives and that pains me terribly.”

Studies have shown that Black and brown communities across the U.S. have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19. So, as a mental health professional, Stacey Brown said that removing the mask mandate would have a catastrophic impact on neigborhoods already underserved.

“We’re not getting vaccinated fast enough in our communities,” she said. “So, we’re going to be hurt by this. We’re already in the restaurants and the essential and frontline workers.”

Abbott first imposed the mask mandate back in July following an increase in cases. But, for Brown, now is not the time to ease up on restrictions.

“Once again, Gov. Abbott and his people have chosen profits over people,” Brown said. “It was the same thing with the ERCOT and deregulation of electricity and they’re doing it once more by putting the entire state in danger.”

Echoing similar sentiments, Jayme Campbell thought Abbott’s decision, coming weeks after the winter storm that left at least a dozen people dead, a “reckless” one. As a social worker, in the past year, Campbell has helped countless families shaken up by the virus, ranging from death to loss of income.

“It’s insulting to the people who have spent so much time working with people who have COVID and all of the loss and grief they went through, but also to everyone else who’s had to live through this a year, now,” Campbell said. “We did that and we took that sacrifice on behalf of other people. So, to do that, he’s basically saying that it was for nothing.”

On the same day, Mississippi’s governor Tate Reeves also lifted the state’s mask mandate and removed COVID-19 restrictions related to businesses drawing praise and criticism. Similar to Texas, some Mississippians remain without water following a harsh winter storm that left homes damaged, residents without electricity and hunkering down in frigid temperatures.

“I think we still have a major issue that he (Abbott) has not considered and that’s people who got together during the storm and probably spread COVID faster,” Campbell said. “We’re still not out of that yet to see what effect that had.”

The CDC reports that 7.1% of Texans have been fully vaccinated out of nearly 30 million residents. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins disagreed with the rollback, saying Abbott’s move to “fully reopen Texas bucks science.” Jenkins added that it was an attempt to “divert attention from his lack of preparation for and mishandling of the Texas power grid collapse.”

“If you’re interested in what you can get away with, listen to the governor,” Jenkins said. “If you’re interested in knowing what doctors say will keep you, your business, and your family safe, listen to me and the doctors.”

In Dallas County, officials reported 25 new deaths and 526 new positive cases of COVID-19 on the day of Gov. Abbott’s announcement. The death toll in the county now sits at more than 3,000.

“We’re not out of the woods here and this is jumping the gun like a lot,” Campbell said. “I think it’s so reckless and at this point when the rates go up, the blood is on his hands is how I feel about it.”

As for now, businesses will still have a choice in enforcing mask restrictions and capacity limits. However, Fillion says, with the mask mandate coming to an end, his family will essentially have to change their routines.

“I have an 18-month-old daughter who likes to go out and shop because there’s not really anything else for a child to do right now,” he said. “We’ve been taking her to thrift stores and places like that because at least everyone is masked and they are not crowded. Now, we really have no idea what we’re going to do with her on days where the weather is too bad to take her to the park.”

As for Daugherty, the idea of reopening his bar sometime in the spring brings great joy as well as concern. But, for his fellow Texans, he did have some advice to offer: “Listen to health professionals and not politicians.”

CORRECTION: A previous version of the story incorrectly stated the month in which Fillion lost his job. The error has been corrected. (March 4, 2021)