“It is now time to open Texas 100 percent,” Abbott declared, saying that Texas had controlled the pandemic and that “people and businesses don’t need the state telling them how to operate.” Despite Abbott’s promises about the state’s vaccination rollout, Texas’ vaccine distribution is still among the worst in the United States, with just 7.5 percent of Texans fully vaccinated—less than one-tenth of what experts say is needed to reach herd immunity. Predictably, state lawmakers’ response to Abbott’s end to state COVID-19 restrictions have been divided along party lines.