Newsom slams Texas for dropping mask mandate. ‘We’re a little more mindful and sober’
The same day he toured a vaccination clinic sporting a black mask with the California state flag, Gov. Gavin Newsom had a few strong words for one state’s decision to stop wearing them.
“We’re never going to subscribe to the point of view of some of the other states,” he said during a press conference in San Luis Obispo regarding California’s coronavirus vaccination rollout. “There was one large state today that said, ‘No masks, everything goes back to normal’ in the midst of a pandemic.”
“We’re a little more mindful and sober of the potency of these variants and mutations, as well,” Newsom said. “A little mindful and sober of the experience we had last summer, where we moved forward and ultimately had to revert back, and we don’t want to do that ever again.”
Newsom was seemingly referencing Texas, which on Tuesday became the largest state in the nation to lift its coronavirus mask mandate.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbot announced Tuesday that he was dropping the state’s mask mandate and reopening the Lone Star State 100%.
“With the medical advancements of vaccines and antibody therapeutic drugs, Texas now has the tools to protect Texans from the virus,” Abbott said in a news release. “Make no mistake, COVID-19 has not disappeared, but it is clear from the recoveries, vaccinations, reduced hospitalizations, and safe practices that Texans are using that state mandates are no longer needed.”
With the announcement, Texas joined smaller states like North Dakota, Montana and Iowa in lifting their statewide mask mandates. Mississippi, Michigan and Louisiana also lifted their mask mandates on Tuesday.
It does not seem like California will be joining their ranks any time soon however.
In his comments on Tuesday, Newsom told reporters that the positivity rate in the “large state” he obliquely referenced is “exponentially higher than the state of California” and that their death rate is “much higher as well.”
If that was about Texas, part of that is true — part of that isn’t.
As of Tuesday, California’s positivity rate, the number of coronavirus tests that are positive compared with the overall number of tests administered, was 2.4% — a record low since the start of the pandemic last year.
Texas’, by comparison, was 12.3% in the past week, according to data from Johns Hopkins’ coronavirus resource center.
Contrary to Newsom’s statement, both states’ death rates are roughly similar, however.
According to data from The New York Times, both California and Texas have reported 0.79 deaths per 100,000 people in the past week.
Notably, California is outperforming Texas in terms of both case rates and vaccination rates — the latter of which is an area where California has struggled in recent months.
In the past seven days, California has seen 13 COVID cases per 100,000 people, while Texas has seen 27, according to The New York Times data.
For reference, California’s population is roughly 1.4 times the size of Texas’, with 39.5 million residents living in the Golden State compared with 29 million in Texas.
California has also administered at least one dose of vaccine to roughly 16.5% of its population, and 7.3% have received both doses; in Texas about 12.9% of the population has received the first dose of the vaccine and 6.8% are fully inoculated.
During the conference on Tuesday, Newsom said California is working methodically through its coronavirus reopening tiers and won’t jump ahead if the science doesn’t support it.
“We’re being sober, moving tier-to-tier methodically, working through a tiered system that’s well-established, well-designed,” he said. “We’re not pulling the plug or pulling the rug out, like other states have done. ... We believe in a tiering strategy, which means we move deliberately, but we don’t over-indulge in terms of reverting back to the way things were until the data, until the science, until the transmission of this disease warrants that move.”
This story was originally published March 2, 2021 at 7:37 PM with the headline "Newsom slams Texas for dropping mask mandate. ‘We’re a little more mindful and sober’."
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