Current Events > So why did Texas' covid cases not rise after lifting the mask mandate in March?

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Genuine question. There doesn't seem to be a lot of info on it, but just looking at the covid cases in Texas, they are dropping and/or low from the March 10th date. It'll probably remain low or stay near the current levels since people are being vaccinated, but that doesn't really explain why the state did so well for the past month.

Is this due to people still wearing masks in general (gut feeling says hard to believe, it's Texas after all), are more people outside so it's harder to transmit the virus, natural progress of the virus or something else?

This is a pretty good article which dives into it saying that the demand for testing has dropped, but wouldn't deaths still show the number of people dying from covid?

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/04/14/texas-coronavirus-mask-order-abbott/



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From my anecdotal experience, people's habits changed very little after the mandate went away. Anti maskers were doing their thing, most people still wear masks in public spaces most of the time. That's relaxing quite a bit right now, though.

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I haven't looked into it but some things I've seen thrown around are that the terrible winter storm we had acted as a de facto lockdown, helping to slow the spread, and that the nice spring weather is keeping people outdoors where transmission is low, compared to the summer spike that came during a time when people are typically indoors to beat the heat.

Fwiw, just based on my personal experiences and perception from my friends and family, mask usage and social distancing seem about the same as they have been for a while.

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vaccine

and people who are anti mask were already not wearing masks before the mandate was lifted

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Jabodie posted...

From my anecdotal experience, people's habits changed very little after the mandate went away. Anti maskers were doing their thing, most people still wear masks in public spaces most of the time. That's relaxing quite a bit right now, though.

TheLiarParadox posted...

I haven't looked into it but some things I've seen thrown around are that the terrible winter storm we had acted as a de facto lockdown, helping to slow the spread, and that the nice spring weather is keeping people outdoors where transmission is low, compared to the summer spike that came during a time when people are typically indoors to beat the heat.

Fwiw, just based on my personal experiences and perception from my friends and family, mask usage and social distancing seem about the same as they have been for a while.

That's kind of what I was thinking that people just kept wearing masks. I think maybe it was some combination of that + 2 week delay in showing deaths and by that point a lot more people will have been vaccinated. Annoying part is that there's little data (that I can find at least) which supports those ideas and instead anti-mask and vax people just keep talking about my FB.

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People stopped getting tested.

SomeGuyUO posted...

People stopped getting tested.

but wouldn't people still be dying in the hospital of covid, which is required to test patients who come in?

thronedfire2 posted...

vaccine

and people who are anti mask were already not wearing masks before the mandate was lifted

i don't think the vaccine was readily available around March 10th, was it? Second part I agree with though.

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NightMarishPie posted...

i don't think the vaccine was readily available around March 10th, was it?

Right, but before that it was made available to the people who are most likely to need hospitalization if they get it.

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Intro2Logic posted...

Right, but before that it was made available to the people who are most likely to need hospitalization if they get it.

That's true. I've been volunteering at a vaccine clinic since early March and it's been interesting to see the people coming in go from like 80% elderly to like 80% college students over the last couple of months.

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SomeGuyUO posted...

People stopped getting tested.

This is part of it. The death rate increased but the cases went down.

Other part is already mentioned -- antimaskers were gonna keep on antimasking anyways, and maskers were gonna keep on masking. All the mandate did was allow businesses to enable spreader events.
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I'm in Texas and almost everyone still wears masks.

Most people are still wearing masks, from what I've seen. Just a touch under half the population of Texas has at least 1 vaccine shot. 36% or just over 8 million people in Texas are fully vaccinated. Combine that with almost 3 million reported cases total.

And if the CDC's estimations are correct that actual cases are about 4x higher than reported cases... That would make about 12 million infections in Texas

12 million infections
11 million with at least 1 shot

• Up to 23 million people with some amount of resistance to covid

Total population of Texas = 29 million

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Jabodie posted...

That's true. I've been volunteering at a vaccine clinic since early March and it's been interesting to see the people coming in go from like 80% elderly to like 80% college students over the last couple of months.

This is a good point I hadn't considered. Maybe all of the at-risk people got the vaccine early which ended up curbing any big spike that may have occurred from lifting the mask mandate. This combined with more vaccines has effectively curbed any big spike...hopefully?

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