HOW WE GOT HERE
THE ROOM WAS PACKED, the shutters drawn against the Austin heat. It was September 17 and Texas state leaders took to one of the smallest rooms in the Capitol building for a press conference on the coronavirus. They filed in that afternoon and took their seats: Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dennis Bonnen on either end of a rectangular table, Governor Greg Abbott between them. Each wore a black mask and sat a foot or so apart. State health officials took their seats against the wall behind them, partially hidden from view.
Abbott removed his mask to speak, revealing a slight grin. This was a happier occasion for the governor than his announcement just two and a half months earlier, when after weeks of surging hospitalizations, he had reluctantly heeded the advice of public health officials and scaled back the state’s spring reopening. Now, inside the cramped conference room, he was here to announce a win. COVID-19 hospitalizations were at their lowest levels since July, he said, and “the number of people recovering from COVID continues to skyrocket.” So Abbott, a Republican, had an announcement: Most businesses, with the exception of bars, could open to 75 percent capacity. Visits could resume in some nursing homes for the first time since March. “Texans have shown that we can address both the health and safety concerns of COVID while also taking carefully measured steps to restore the livelihoods that Texans desperately need,” he said.
But the governor’s pronouncement ignored some harsh realities. New infections, while no longer spiking, were still about triple what they were when Abbott first reopened the state in May. Hospitalizations were down since their peak in July but had plateaued at a level double what they were this spring. By mid-September, more than 15,600 Texans had died. Meanwhile, scientists warned of new spikes in the midst of flu season and schools reopening.
More than seven months into the pandemic, Abbott and other state leaders have merely paid lip service to the idea of balancing public health and the state’s economy. Experts say Texas is still not testing enough people to have an accurate and timely understanding of the virus’ spread. The state’s COVID-19 data is inconsistent and unreliable, partially because the state’s antiquated data system has caused backlogs in reporting case information. Local officials are still struggling to keep up with case investigations, and with about 3,700 contact tracers as of early September, the state has not met Abbott’s own modest goal of 4,000 by this spring.
In Texas, COVID-19 found the perfect place to spread.
A conservative Texan brand of individualism has long guided our health policy, from lawmakers backing a fast-growing anti-vaccine movement, to a continued rejection of Medicaid expansion, to a Texas-led lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court in November that seeks to eliminate the Affordable Care Act, amid a global
