Lax COVID response damages economy
The failure to vaccinate and enact other safety measures is costing Texans billions of dollars.
If Gov. Greg Abbott and other Texas officials won’t listen to good sense — to the pleas of parents afraid for their kids, the pleas from health experts to follow science, the pleas of exhausted doctors and nurses to do more to stop COVID from spreading — maybe they’ll listen to dollars and cents.
There’s something besides human life that’s increasingly at risk as Texas stumbles and bumbles through its COVID-19 response.
To borrow a phrase: It’s the economy, stupid.
The failure to vaccinate and enact other safety measures is costing Texans billions of dollars, according to economist Ray Perryman, CEO of the Perryman Group in Waco. He told the editorial board recently that Texas is losing about $186,000 per year for each person out of work due to the pandemic, with potential losses reaching nearly $13.4 billion per year. Employers and the state are losing revenue as the pandemic drags on.
Mask-wearing and vaccinations will help the economy continue its recovery, Perryman said. To be truly pro-economy “we’ve got to listen to the doctors and the virologists,” he said, noting the stress the latest spike has put on schools, hospitals and families.
“Despite these concerns, there has been massive resistance by policymakers to sensible and basic protective measures, such as appropriate masking requirements and measures to encourage higher vaccination rates,” he said in a recent report.
Last year, after the shutdown-induced precipitous economic drop in the first few weeks of the pandemic, Texas opened up more than some states but still had capacity restrictions and a mask mandate. In 2020, Abbott mostly acted responsibly, charting a middle course. Now, as the Republican primary next spring inches closer, each week seemingly brings another outrageous decision to refuse simple strategies that will get us through.
Not only has he refused to implement a statewide mask mandate, he has zealously obstructed local officials and school superintendents from doing so, leading to needless litigation, infighting and energy that could go into fighting the real foe: a deadly pandemic that’s already killed more than 57,000 Texans.
Earlier in the summer, the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel seemed nearer, with case numbers low and consumer
confidence growing. “From Mother’s Day to the Fourth of July, there was this little tiny window of hope,” Beverly Hatcher, president of the Golden Triangle Minority Business Council, told us last week. With delta raging, it feels far away.
The NRA canceled its annual meeting, originally set for last weekend at the George R. Brown Convention Center, because of high case numbers and hospitalizations. Say what you will about the NRA — and we have said a lot — Houston restaurants, stores and hotels lost out on the business of tens of thousands of visitors from across the country.
The Chronicle’s Amanda Drane reported recently that Houston restaurant reservations, which were at pre-pandemic levels in early July, steadily declined in
late July and August as the delta variant surged. Restaurants reported more takeout and delivery business late in the summer — and declining revenues — as the latest spike took over.
“People are tired,” Hatcher said. Small business owners — the ones who haven’t yet had to close down — are hanging on by a thread and badly need help. They need financial support and “our leaders need to be drum majors for mask-wearing and getting vaccinated.”
Politicians, with our help, have created a dichotomy pitting economic health and public safety against one another in a zero sum game. But we can’t have one without the other. We can’t have healthy businesses if workers are at home with sick kids. Consumers can’t have the confidence to dine in busy restaurants or shop at crowded stores if the virus is surging, nearly half the state isn’t fully vaccinated and people aren’t wearing masks.
Being responsible about Texas’ COVID response doesn’t mean a state-mandated shutdown, which is indeed harmful to the economy. At this point, we’ve learned a lot about this virus. We know which simple protocols can stop the spread. We just have to use them.
For weeks, the South has been the global epicenter of the pandemic, according to vaccine expert Dr. Peter Hotez. He told the editorial board Friday that the reason northeastern states have avoided the worst of the delta surge is “no mystery.” It’s high vaccination rates and more buy-in on masks.
Economists caution against making broad state-by-state comparisons of economic strength. States entered the pandemic with different levels of growth, wide-ranging unemployment rates and varying demographic landscapes. Some states with great health care access have older populations. Texas, which shamefully maintains the lowest insured rate in the nation, is blessed with a relatively young population.
Three northeastern states (New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts) and two southern states (Mississippi and Louisiana) fill out the top five states in COVID death rate per 100,000 residents since the start of the pandemic.
More recently, however, with vaccines readily available, death rates in Texas and Florida spiked far worse than in California and Massachusetts, two states with leaders and residents taking vaccinations and the virus more seriously. “It was always a myth that we could separate public health from the economy,” Hotez said. “If we’re fully going to get back to pre-pandemic life, then we’ve got to get the epidemic under control.”
To do that, he said, about 85 percent of the total population, children included, needs to be vaccinated. Currently, 62.7 percent of the U.S. population has received at least one dose, and 53.4 percent are fully vaccinated.
Our governor and other conservatives speak often of their support for small businesses and this state’s pro-business mentality. There are plenty of more important reasons to battle this virus beyond economic vitality, but if our economy is to ever fully rebound, vaccines and masks are the way.