AH, VINDICATION – OVERNIGHT:  Texas was right.  The president was wrong.  Don't mess with Texas.  From Fox:  

Texas reported zero deaths from COVID-19 on Sunday, just two months after Gov. Greg Abbott drew heat from the White House for rolling back business restrictions and lifting the state's mask mandate.

It marked the first time the Lone Star State reported no coronavirus deaths in about 14 months, according to state health data. Abbott said the case numbers reported on Sunday – 388 – were the lowest in more than 13 months, while the number of hospitalizations was the lowest in 11 months.

President Biden skewered Texas, as well as Mississippi, at the beginning of March for relaxing lockdown measures, accusing state officials of "Neanderthal thinking." At the time, Abbott had announced that businesses would be allowed to operate at full capacity – even though some health experts cautioned at the time that dropping preventative measures could lead to a spike in cases.

"I think it's a big mistake," Biden told reporters, following the announcement from Texas. "Look, I hope everybody's realized by now, these masks make a difference. We are on the cusp of being able to fundamentally change the nature of this disease because of the way in which we're able to get vaccines in people's arms."

Since then, however, caseloads nationwide have dropped as more Americans are vaccinated.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also updated its guidance last Thursday, saying that it's safe for fully vaccinated Americans to forgo social distancing and go most places – indoor or outdoor – without a mask, bringing to end more than a year of mandatory face coverings in most parts of the country. But some states, including Hawaii and Massachusetts, have insisted they will keep their mask mandates in place.

COMMENT:  The red states seem to be doing pretty well in bringing their people back from the pandemic.  The blue states, like my train wreck of a state, New York, are not doing as well.  Burdened by socialist thinking, and looking for more statues to tear down and more police forces to defund, they just don't seem very eager to put Covid 19 behind them.

Within months we should be getting alerts for the booster shots that will be necessary, especially for those who've been vaccinated early.  There could of course be local outbreaks of Covid 19, bringing back the dream of eternal masking for the woke left.

May 17, 2021