Adam Serwer, The Atlantic: “Governor Greg Abbott is afraid. Not of COVID-19, which is killing thousands of Texans, but of losing his primary. Last week, Abbott announced that he was banning COVID-vaccine mandates by ‘any entity’ in Texas, a policy so absurd that you’d be forgiven for thinking, as the running joke on social media goes, that the coronavirus wrote the executive order itself. You might as well ban restaurants from requiring employees to wash their hands, or bar hospitals from making surgeons wear masks in the operating room. According to The Texas Tribune, about 270 Texans a day have died of the virus in the past month – close to 70,000 people in total – and only 52 percent of the state’s population is fully vaccinated. The vaccines could control the pandemic, if Republican officials and their allies in conservative media weren’t so busy trying to convince their followers not to get them.”

“Throughout the pandemic, Abbott and other Texas Republicans have emphasized the need for ‘personal responsibility, not government mandates,’ even as they have imposed their own government mandates designed to thwart public-health efforts. Abbott has used the power of the state to prevent not just businesses but also schools and local governments from adopting coronavirus-mitigation measures. At Abbott’s urging, Texas Republican legislators are currently working on a bill designed to stop businesses from adopting such mandates. The reason for all this recklessness is that, as his 2022 primary approaches, Abbott is aiming to stay in the good graces of Fox News’s prime-time lineup, which retains a powerful sway over the Republican primary electorate, and former President Donald Trump. If either or both turn against him, their influence over Republican primary voters in Texas might actually make Abbott’s race competitive.”