Downplaying COVID even as cases surge
On March 23, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick infamously suggested that grandparents, such as himself, would be willing to die from COVID-19 if it meant keeping the American economy open for their children and grandchildren.
“No one reached out to me and said, ‘As a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren?’ ” he said on Fox News. “And if that’s the exchange, I’m all in. And that doesn’t make me noble or brave or anything like that.”
On June 11, U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw responded to Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s warning about the alarming rise of infections by tweeting: “This is such an irresponsible overstatement from our County Judge. Pure and simple fear mongering. It needs to stop. People have figured out what they need to do to remain safe. We have enormous hospital capacity. We can do this.”
On June 30, responding to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s observation that some states, like Texas, may have skipped over checkpoints in the White House’s guide for reopening, Patrick said, “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. We haven’t skipped over anything. The only thing I’m skipping over is listening to him.”
On Nov. 10, three days after the presidential election was called for Joe Biden, Sen. Ted Cruz, sarcastically, tweeted, “Miraculous. COVID cured, the very instant the networks called the race for Biden.” Cavalier and sarcastic downplaying of the threat of COVID-19 has been a common theme from Texas’ Republican elected officials since the early days of the pandemic. It is a theme that has remained constant even as, last month, Texas became the first state in the country to surpass 1 million COVID-19 infections. It has also been reflected in Gov. Greg Abbott’s often slow response to mitigate the spread. The state response has been so bad the White House coronavirus task force issued a report before Thanksgiving calling for Texas to do more to stop the virus’s spread.
The report says, “Texas continues to be in a full resurgence and mitigation efforts must intensify. The silent spread that precedes and continues to drive these surges can only be identified and interrupted through proactive, focused testing.”
It calls for the state to significantly reduce maximum occupancy for public and private spaces while weekly testing teachers, students, college students, county workers and hospital personnel.
The report described Texas and the nation as being in a very “dangerous place” with COVID-19. It preceded comments made Wednesday by Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who said that the next few months of the pandemic would be among “the most difficult in the public health history of this nation.” Texas ranks 34th among the states for cases per capita, and more than three-quarters of Texas counties are experiencing moderate or high levels of viral transmission. It’s a “red zone” test where more than 10 percent of coronavirus test results are positive. More than half of the state’s counties, including Bexar, are in that “red zone.”
The dire tone of the White House’s Task Force report, and Redfield’s comments, contrast with the more optimistic tenor of Abbott, who prefers to emphasize the promise of imminent vaccines. But it could be months before vaccines are widely distributed.
Local municipalities in Texas are hampered in exercising stronger mitigation policies by Abbott’s edict that they can’t exceed those he’s issued. Yet the White House task force report encourages local public health officials to bypass elected officials and appeal directly to the public.
Abbott has not held a news conference on COVID since Sept. 17, preferring to speak to specific media outlets instead of addressing the entire citizenry of the state he was elected to govern. Recently, once more extolling the potential of what the virus may do instead of what he can do now, Abbott said Texans have entered “the ninth inning of our challenge with COVID.”
But any fan of baseball knows errors and poor judgment can push the game into extra innings.