Idiot governors getting rid of mask requirements puts essential workers at risk

Without mask requirements, essential workers in Texas and Mississippi say they feel more vulnerable than ever


March 5 at 11:34 AM ET


Neither state is giving vaccine priority to restaurant, retail or grocery workers. ‘It puts people who are already in a precarious position in a terrible bind,’ one expert said.

The masks came off almost immediately, even faster than Alexis De Los Santos had feared. Fewer than half the shoppers who came through her grocery checkout line in Corpus Christi, Tex., this week wore face coverings. Many told her they were relieved Gov. Greg Abbott (R) was lifting the mask mandate and declaring the state “open 100%.” Some said they felt as if they could finally breathe again.


After nearly a year on the front lines of the pandemic, retail and restaurant workers in Texas and Mississippi — where governors said this week that they would ease a number of coronavirus-related restrictions, including mask requirements — say they feel especially vulnerable now. They’ve worked through shutdowns and watched colleagues fall ill and die of the virus.
The stakes, they say, feel even higher now. They’re not yet eligible for the vaccine even though they’re surrounded by hundreds, sometimes thousands, of customers a day.

In interviews with more than a dozen workers, many said they’ve considered quitting.
“It’s like pulling the rug out from under essential workers — the very people who need our unambiguous support and protection — just as we’re turning a corner,” said David Abrams, professor of social and behavioral science at New York University’s School of Global Public Health. “It puts people who are already in a precarious position in a terrible bind.”



At least 175 grocery workers have died of covid-19, and thousands more have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to labor unions, advocacy groups and media reports, though tracking is spotty and incomplete. And though they were celebrated as “heroes” at the beginning of the pandemic, retail workers have largely been left off vaccine priority lists and lag behind other essential workers in hourly pay, health benefits and sick leave.