I'm Brian Lerer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Thursday, March 4th.

Here are two stories about Texas in the news right now that should be of interest in every state.

One is that Houston has become the first U. should be of interest in every state. One is that Houston

has become the first U.S. city to find every COVID variant present in the local population.

That was in the Houston Chronicle on Monday. We'll talk to the Chronicles Health and Politics

reporter Jeremy Blackman in just a minute. They have every COVID variant that doctors know about. The other story is that

the very next day, Tuesday, Governor Greg Abbott announced that he is lifting all COVID-related

restrictions on businesses and individuals. It is now time to open Texas 100%.

So no more mask mandate and everything can reopen at 100% capacity.

So how do these fit together?

There's finding every variant in Houston and reopening the state.

And what are the implications for the rest of

the country? On the Houston story, the article quotes scientists at Houston Methodist Hospital

saying they have identified 28 different variants now circulating in the city, including the UK,

the Brazil, and I know you're going to cringe what is starting to be called the New York City variant. And yesterday, according to the New York Times, state-by-state COVID tracker,

274 Texans died from COVID, a 16% increase compared to two weeks ago. But in his Tuesday

announcement, Governor Abbott said this.

COVID has not like suddenly disappeared. COVID still exists in Texas and the United States

and across the globe. But it is clear from the recoveries, from the vaccinations, from the reduced hospitalizations,

and from the safe practices that Texans are using, that state mandates are no longer needed.

Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday.

Now, that full lifting of limits takes effect next week, next Wednesday, and it's not just Texas, by the way. Also on Tuesday, Mississippi's governor announced the same total lifting of capacity limits. And in Massachusetts, a liberal state with a Republican governor, Charlie Baker, all capacity

...