AUSTIN, Texas — Cases of the new COVID variant are popping up all over Texas. That’s especially true in the Austin area, where the city is recommending Texans mask up when social distancing isn’t possible, like at restaurants and while shopping. But some lawmakers, in the Capitol for the new legislative session, want to ban future pandemic-era restrictions.

It was nearly three years ago that Texas shut down. Doctors were wrapped in protective equipment from head-to-toe, and hospitals were filling up with COVID patients. To date, more than 90,000 Texans have died from the virus, per state data. 

Over time, it was scientifically proven that masks and vaccines saved lives. But back in 2021, Gov. Greg Abbott lifted the mask mandate, saying it was up to Texans to decide how to protect themselves.

“We’re past the time of government mandates,” the governor said. “We’re into the time for personal responsibility, and that’s exactly what we’ll do.” 

Two years later and a bipartisan group of senators still feels the same way. A report from the Texas Senate Committee on Health and Human Services recommends lawmakers prohibit any future mask and vaccine mandates.

The committee, which released the report late last year, was made up of six Republicans and three Democrats, some of whom are medical professionals. Three members did not sign the report. Sen. César Blanco, D-El Paso, signed it but attached a letter saying that the “prohibition of future mask mandates is of concern given the data that supports their use as an effective community measure to limit the spread of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.”

None of the members responded to requests for comment, but Democratic Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin, weighed in on the policy proposals.

“As a county judge during the pandemic, the mask mandate proved to be a really excellent tool for us to take a small collective action that was highly effective, extremely efficient, very fair, and minimally intrusive, that actually saved lives,” Sen. Eckhardt said. “And the data is in inside the scientific and medical world that it had a hugely beneficial effect. So I think that contemplation of a ban on mask mandates is dangerous politics to the point of being deadly politics.”

But the report justifies a ban on future mask and vaccine mandates by saying, “The pandemic revealed sweeping mandates create unintended consequences like economic hardship, delayed preventative treatments, and at times death. Preference for one treatment over another led to confusion and corporate steerage in the medical profession and led the populace to lose trust in the medical industry.” 

Dr. Manish Naik, the chief medical officer at the Austin Regional Clinic, said there might be a need for universal masking in the future, especially for COVID variants.

“If we know masking is going to reduce transmission rates, reduce the likelihood of somebody getting sick, ending up in the hospital, or dying, then we ought to be recommending masking,” said Dr. Naik.

He added that health care should be managed by doctors and scientists, and it might be better for lawmakers to just handle the legal aspects of COVID-19.

Notably, Dr. Naik said Texas is in a much better place today than it was almost three years ago.

“There is a lot of immunity in the population, either from getting vaccination, or from getting an infection,” he said.

“And when you have some level of immunity against this infection, and you can track the infection, your chance of getting severely ill or dying from the infection is much lower. So the risk level is not the same today as it was when the pandemic started. Now, that being said, there are certain individuals that are still at higher risk, because they don’t have a healthy immune system and they can’t respond to vaccine, or maybe they’re too young to have a fully mature immune system like a newborn. So I think it requires a little bit more nuanced approach right now. I think, again, for the majority of people, they’re no longer at high risk. But there are segments of the population where there is risk. And so those are the places I think we need to be more cautious.”

Sen. Eckhardt hopes some of the state’s budget surplus is invested in health care and education. She also thinks lawmakers should keep talking about COVID, so Texas can prepare for the next public health emergency.

“While the medical profession provides us unbiased, non-politicized science on what truly works, only government can provide the public health apparatus to get what works out in a time of crisis,” Sen. Eckhardt said. “And so I don’t think it’s time to stop talking about it. I think that we need to take the lessons learned from this pandemic, based on the data and the science, and prepare for the next public health emergency, because there will be one.… You must practice so that you will perform well in a public health emergency, and to remove the tool of masking makes us less prepared.”

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