California is also doing much better when it comes to driving down infections. The state’s seven-day average is 52.7 cases and 1.8 deaths per 100,000 as of April 15, with a seven-day average positivity rate of 1.5%. Texas, meanwhile, is at 73.3 cases and 1.5 deaths per 100,000, with a seven-day average positivity rate of 7%.
The states’ leaders have reacted differently to those metrics. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has set June 15 as the day to end most pandemic restrictions, barring major setbacks, but he plans to continue to require mask-wearing in public and in high-risk workplaces. Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on March 10 allowed all businesses to fully reopen and lifted a statewide mask mandate.
The concept of individual freedom plays well in Texas politics and has been front and center throughout the pandemic and the vaccine rollout. While encouraging Texans to protect themselves against the spread of the coronavirus, state officials at the same time have fought local authorities’ efforts to enforce such measures.
While Newsom instituted one of the earliest and strictest state lockdowns in the country on March 19, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton initially called local mask mandates and business restrictions “unlawful and unenforceable.” Abbott finally instituted a mask mandate and other restrictions in July after a surge of the disease. Those measures met opposition within his own party, with Texas Republican Chair Allen West leading a protest outside the governor’s mansion in October.
Against this tense political backdrop, Texas state leaders have been softer in their vaccination messaging compared with California. Both governors received their vaccinations on live TV, but each has offered different messaging about how their constituents should view the shots.
In an April 8 tweet, Abbott celebrated the state’s reaching 13 million vaccinations, adding, “These vaccine shots are always voluntary.” That soft-pedaled message also comes through in Abbott’s stance on masks. Despite lifting the order in early March, the governor still urges residents to use them.
Public health experts in Texas have been frustrated by what they see as a half-hearted endorsement of public health measures. “It’s psychotic to have to listen to two very different messages,” said Dr. Andrea Caracostis, CEO of the HOPE Clinic in Houston, which serves minorities and immigrants. “Vaccines were not made just for your individual protection. They were made for community benefit. It is a message that has been lost in our society.”
Newsom, on the other hand, talks about vaccines in terms of responsibility to others. “Getting vaccinated is a vital step we can take to protect ourselves, our loved ones and our community, and brings us that much closer to ending this pandemic,” Newsom said on April 1, when he received his vaccination.