Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Faces Backlash For Banning Vaccine Mandates

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday issued an executive order banning state and local COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

Abbott had initially banned vaccine requirements under the emergency authorizations. Now that Pfizer has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, he adjusted the ban to also include approved vaccines and asked his Texas legislators to vote his executive order into law during their special session, AP News reported.

“Vaccine requirements and exemptions have historically been determined by the Legislature, and their involvement is particularly important to avoid a patchwork of vaccine mandates across Texas,” Abbott said in a tweet.

This is Abbott's second move to ban restrictions in his state. His first was a ban on mask mandates in public schools.

However, his restrictions on COVID safety protocols come at a time where Texas is seeing its hospitalization numbers soar. Hospitals are seeing levels not seen throughout the entire pandemic, with over 360 hospitalizations a day, according to Texas Medical Center data.

With this, Abbott’s move to pass the executive order banning vaccine mandates was received with a lot of backlash.

On Twitter, people have been saying he is “bad at being human” while others have been questioning his conscience as a governor.

Backlash has also come from counties and school districts. Nine counties and dozens of school districts have asked for court orders blocking Abbott’s enforcement, AP News reported.

The Texas Supreme Court has rejected Abbott’s order to block mask mandates but no move has yet been made regarding the block on the vaccine mandate.

Currently, Texas is driving the nation’s average daily cases. The state falls just behind Florida, with an average of 17 thousand daily COVID-19 cases.

Meanwhile, about 56% of its population has received at least one dose of the vaccine while 46% are fully vaccinated.