 So the Republican governor of Texas seems to think that the pandemic is now over because he made this announcement. So today, I'm issuing a new executive order that rescinds most of the earlier executive orders. Effective next Wednesday, all businesses of any type are allowed to open 100% that includes any type of entity in Texas. Also, I am ending the statewide mask mandate. Well, I mean, cases are down. So that means that we no longer have to wear masks. We no longer need to social distance. Let's just pretend as if it's already over because cases and deaths are down. Yes, cases and deaths are down. And that is a really positive sign. The pandemic is not over yet. And that right there is precisely how you extend the length of the pandemic. This isn't just about Texas, because Texans may see a surge in cases as a direct result of this action. And then they'll travel to other states and other Americans will get infected who will then travel internationally and infect other human beings. This affects the entire human population in a negative way. So thanks, asshole. You are perpetuating the extension of the pandemic. Good job. But the borough is so low that it's hard to be that hard on Greg Abbott because at least he had a mask mandate in place. There are some governors like Rhonda Santis who never instituted a statewide mask mandate and even blocked local governments from enacting their own mask mandates. So at least Greg Abbott for a period of time kind of took COVID-19 seriously. I mean, of course, he's easing restrictions far too soon. But at least there was a time where he pretended to care, whereas other governors, they never took it seriously. They're still not taking it seriously in 2021. But this is a bad decision. If you truly are pro-life as Republicans claim to be, then now is not the time to ease up our foot on the gas pedal. Because the CDC just warned that new COVID variants could pose a real threat to vaccine progress. And this could even lead to a fourth surge as the highly contagious UK variant is now set to become the dominant strain in the United States this month. Now, furthermore, vaccines won't even be fully available to the general public until May. And this is according to the Biden administration. So let's assume that Biden is correct here. That means that most Americans, assuming most Americans actually want to get the vaccine, they won't be fully immunized until June. Because if they're available, let's assume on May 1st, then that means that you get your first dose and then you wait 21 to 28 days to get your second dose, depending on if you've taken the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. And then it takes seven to 14 days after your second dose to be fully immunized. So we can't even begin to think about most of the population being fully immunized until June, again, assuming that most Americans take the vaccine. But new variants means that we still have to continue to take this virus very seriously because it is a threat. We don't know about these new variants. We're still learning about COVID-19 itself, the original strain. So there's a lot more that needs to be done. There's still work to do. So we can't just like prematurely declare the virus over and the pandemic over and get back to normal because that is exactly how you extend the length of the pandemic. If we all just took it seriously, if like from the beginning we paid people to stay home, then the pandemic wouldn't have gone as bad. But because we are incapable of taking it seriously because our capitalist economy requires that we continue to send people to work, even if it's a risk to their own health, well, this is what we have to deal with. This is what global capitalism has led to. We're not paying people to stay home. And as a result, people don't want to stay home because their livelihoods depend on them working. And furthermore, the minute we see cases drop, Republican governors and even Democratic governors just choose to not take it seriously. It's just it's very frustrating because if we ever truly want to move past COVID-19, we have to get our shit together and stop being fucking stupid when it comes to this virus. But that's not going to happen. So we can expect COVID-19 for years to come potentially if this is the way that governors respond to declining numbers. Again, I don't want to downplay the significance of declining numbers in new cases and deaths. That's all really good. But that doesn't mean that we just suddenly declared the pandemic over because it's not over. And if we actually want to be over in a real way to actually not be a pandemic anymore, we need to be smart. And this right here with the governor of Texas is doing is not smart. It is absolutely reckless.