“Governor Greg Abbott’s decision today to remove the mask mandate in Texas is very unfortunate. This could increase community spread of COVID-19 and potentially cause mutations called variants. Worn properly, face masks can block respiratory droplets of COVID-19 produced when an infected person coughs. Face masks help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic people who do not realize they have the infection.

Masks help protect your fellow Texans by tamping down the community spread of the virus. Wearing masks can help the economy recover by slowing the spread of the infection in businesses such as restaurants and bars. Through our efforts to wear masks, physical distance and wash hands, we have decreased the infections, hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 in North Texas over the past six weeks. Let’s not reverse this trend. The COVID-19 virus with variants is still here and we have not achieved herd immunity.

While we respect Governor Abbott and realize he has faced enormous challenges with the COVID-19 pandemic and recent weather issues, we strongly disagree with removing the mandatory mask requirements. This decision will cause the community spread to increase, forcing our exhausted healthcare heroes to diagnose, treat and save the lives of newly infected patients. If the community spread increases, the risk of mutations will also increase, creating a new set of potentially dangerous challenges. If you truly want to honor our healthcare heroes, then continue to wear a mask! We ask Governor Abbott to please reconsider his decision.”