ZB9 wrote:Times like these make me very glad that I live in the free state of Texas.  We have been living normal for a while now.  
There are no mandates allowed, crowds are everywhere you go with very few masks seen.  Most people that i know didnt take the jab yet are fine covid wise. 
Of course, people that are scared of covid can choose to stay home or wear masks.  People can wear a hazmat suit if they want.  Everyone is free to take the jab if they want or they can refuse to take it and wont be treated as a 2nd class citizen.  Everyone is free to make their own risk assessments and their own choices.  
No vaccine mandates, very few masks, crowds everywhere....yet no covid crisis.  In fact the covid numbers are pretty low.  I wonder why that is?
There's a lot of propaganda in your post that was stated with the intent to either downplay the seriousness of COVID or undercut the effectiveness of mask mandates and vaccines: 
1) All states are free. The notion that a state relinquishes freedom when complying with a mask mandate is a logical fallacy. 
2) Further, "crowds are everywhere you go with very few masks seen" is a literal talking point from prominent deniers. Are you surveying crowds across the entire state? Of course not. 
3) "Most people that I know that didn't..." Your personal social bubble is not reflective of the millions of people in your state, let alone does it compare to the entire country. 
4) Currently, Texas 
state trends reflect the highest daily average of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths in the country. Even when adjusting for error, your statement that "COVID numbers are pretty low" is simply not true. 
I live in Maryland. Like Texas, we have been living normally, people have the choice to stay home, wear a mask, or a hazmat suit, and the population is free to get the jab. Everyone here is also free to make their own risk assessments and their own choices. However, Maryland's approach to dealing with COVID was not as relaxed as the approach taken by Texas. For the sake of conversation let's compare the two:
Maryland Cases Daily Avg: 1,108
Cases PER 100k: 18
Total COVID Cases: 542k
Hospitalized Daily Avg: 1,010
Hospitalized PER 100k: 17
Deaths Daily Avg: 14.7
Deaths PER 100k: 0.24
Total COVID Deaths: 10,563
MD Vaccination Rates(At Least One Dose)
All Ages: 71%
Aged 12 Years and up: 84%
Aged 65 Years and up: 97%
(Fully Vaccinated) 
All Ages: 65%
Aged 12 Years and up: 76%
Aged 65 Years and up: 91%
TexasCases Daily Avg: 7,782
Cases PER 100k: 27
Total COVID Cases: 4.12M
Hospitalized Daily Avg: 8,569
Hospitalized PER 100k: 30
Deaths Daily Avg: 257.3
Deaths PER 100k: 0.89
Total COVID Deaths: 67,659
Available ICU Beds: 503
TX Vaccination Rates(At Least One Dose)
All Ages: 60%
Aged 12 Years and up: 72%
Aged 65 Years and up: 88%
(Fully Vaccinated) 
All Ages: 52%
Aged 12 Years and up: 62%
Aged 65 Years and up: 80%
Even after adjusting for population, it's apparent that mandates and vaccines work. More importantly, we are all in this together. In my opinion, we really should stop engaging in social commentary like it's a sports debate, where it's my team against yours.