Dire predictions by media, politicians about Texas lifting mask mandate haven’t come to fruition

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott lifted the state’s mask mandate earlier this month, causing liberal media and politicians to panic with doom-and-gloom predictions, but coronavirus cases in the Lone Star state continue to fall roughly three weeks later.

That included President Biden, who referred to it as "Neanderthal thinking" when asked about Abbott's decision at the time.

A Washington Post reporter reacted to Abbott’s decision by sharing an article from last September that a "mass casualty event" was happening every day in Texas. Another journalist called Abbott and people who agree with him "wingnuts," and a liberal website declared Abbott, "showed that there is no limit to how far Republicans will go to kill people by lifting Texas’s mask mandate."

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott lifted the state’s mask mandate earlier this month, causing liberal media and politicians alike to panic with doom-and-gloom predictions. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Despite the outrage, The Texas Department of State Health Services reported on Thursday that new coronavirus cases have declined since the mask mandate was lifted. The New York Times daily tracker shows Texas daily coronavirus cases are down 28 percent from two weeks ago.

"Good job," Abbott tweeted about the trends.

Fox News contributor Guy Benson shared a variety of headlines from news organizations sounding the alarm on March 2. Newsweek focused on Texas Democrat Beto O’Rourke calling the decision a "death warrant for Texans," a local ABC affiliate declared," Model projections for Texas show worst-case scenario without mask mandate," CNN editor-at-large Chris Cillizza wrote about Abbott’s "head-scratching, anti-science decision" and another headline declared Abbott’s decision could result in another coronavirus surge.

"The examples of hysteria are endless," Benson wrote. "I was concerned it could be premature, but also had the humility to recognize how many of the doomsday predictions had failed to materialize elsewhere. Repeatedly."

Benson admitted "no one is out of the woods yet" but dire predictions haven’t exactly come to fruition.

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"The ‘death sentence’ dystopia so shrilly and confidently predicted by so many hasn’t developed in TX, weeks after Gov Abbott supposedly unleashed mass suffering. And as the graphs show, restriction-heavy NY is in a significantly worse spot," he wrote.

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer listened intently as a Biden staffer said, "We think it's a mistake to lift these mandates too early. Masks are saving a lot of lives."

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, "The entire country has paid the price for political leaders who ignore the science," and actor Matthews McConaughey even spoke out about his home state.

"I was a little dumbfounded by the decision," McConaughey said on "CBS This Morning." "I understand 'go back to work.' What I did not understand was 'pull the mask mandate.'"

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom called the move "absolutely reckless," and Twitter was flooded with hot takes from people who called Abbott’s decision everything from "crazy" to "embarrassing."