Why Is Texas So Far Behind Other States in Responding to the Coronavirus?

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Oldbear83
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TexasScientist said:

Flaming Moderate said:

blackie said:

TexasScientist said:

Flaming Moderate said:

TexasScientist said:

Texans Brace for a COVID-19 'Explosion' Just Days After Reopening
LONE STAR PROBLEM

Prisons. Meat plants. Nursing homes. And nowhere near enough testing to know how bad the coronavirus problem is. Olivia Messer, reporter

The ascent of the novel coronavirus in the Lone Star State has been a gradual one. But as the state reopens its economy, infection counts are surgingand experts warn of a potential flood in the months ahead.
On March 4, the state health department reported Texas' first positive case of COVID-19. One month later, on April 4, there were 6,110 cases. As of MondayMay 4approximately 32,332 Texans had tested positive for the coronavirus, with an overnight uptick of 784. About 7,035 of those cases were confirmed in just one week, according to data analyzed by The Texas Tribune. And that's despite having one of the lowest testing rates in the nation.

Two counties lead the state's cases. Harris, which includes the city of Houston and is the third largest county in the United States, had 6,967 confirmed cases on Monday and more than 130 deaths, according to Dr. Umair A. Shah, executive director for the county's public health department. There were 129 new cases overnight, Shah told The Daily Beast.

On Sunday, Dallas County reported its highest new COVID-19 case total to date, with 234 additional positive resultsjust two days after Gov. Greg Abbott's statewide shelter-in-place order expired. As of 10 a.m. Monday, the county had reported 237 additional positive cases overnightanother recordbringing the total case count there to 4,370, including 114 deaths.

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins has repeatedly cautioned residents to continue social distancing despite Abbott's decision to reopen businesses on Friday. Abbott was just one in a laundry list of mostly Republican governors who recently launched aggressive efforts to reignite pandemic-ravaged economieseven as epidemiologists warn of possibly grave consequences.

But amid evidence of nationwide quarantine fatigue and revised models showing a surge in deaths expected in connection with COVID-19, public health experts in the state were keeping their eyes trained squarely on long-term care facilities and prisons. That's where they expected one of the most populous states in America to see its coronavirus future come into sharper, and more disturbing, focus.
"It's going to be scary going into the fall," said Diana Cervantes, director of the epidemiology program at the University of North Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health. "We're going to see a huge explosion of cases."

Neither Governor Abbott's office nor the Texas Department of State Health Services responded to questions from The Daily Beast on Monday. And to be clear, multiple experts warned that people leaving the house more often since the reopening may very well become infected, but that it would take days before symptoms present themselves, and longer to get test resultsif they can even acquire a test. In other words, any new surge tied to the reopening would not be clear for at least a week.


"For the state, the overall trend [of infections] is that the peaks are getting a little higher and a little wider," said Cervantes. "I think people get fatigued on doing these types of foundational public health measures to prevent transmission, like social-distancing and wearing masks."

As Dallas County data appeared to confirm on Monday, more than 40 percent of the state's coronavirus deaths are linked to long-term care facilities, which an analysis by the Tribune and ProPublica found last week. Jenkins, the county judge, told The Daily Beast that he hoped his community followed "the science," meaning the recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), public health officials, and major hospital chains in the area.

"They say that it's too early to open, that we haven't seen that two-week decline," Jenkins said, referring to federal guidance calling for a 14-day drop in new cases. "In fact, in Texas we haven't seen any decline. And we rank dead last in testing. So they're telling us to brace for worse infections because we didn't follow the science."

State health authorities have so far refused to name the nursing facilities with known casesor disclose the total number of infections across all such facilities in Texas.
Experts were sounding the alarm.

"What I am concerned about with reopening, is that, if facility staff broaden their contacts with people outside their household, then staff may acquire the virus and unknowingly bring it into the facility," said Patty Ducayet, the state's federally mandated long-term care ombudsman for more than a decade. "That's a risk of expanding our social networks before we have widespread testing and ample PPE supplies for all."

Jenkins said Dallas County was already "seeing a widespread outbreak in the general population."

"The main concern would be that the citizens would hear what the governor is saying and act on that and begin to do things like go to large group meetings, go to theaters, go hang out in restaurants and then spread a lot more disease and make this worse," he added. "But at this point it's up to each person in Texas to make good choices."
One of the worst known outbreaks in Texas stemmed from an assisted living facility in College Station, about 95 miles northwest of Houston. But there are approximately 1,200 nursing homes and 2,000 assisted living facilities in the state, and last week the Texas Health and Human Services Commission reported 242 resident deaths in nursing homes and 61 fatalities in assisted living facilities, the Tribune reported.
Ducayet said the percentage of fatal cases impacting long-term care residents "shows just how vulnerable they are." In some cases, she explained, a staff member working at more than one facility who may not have known they were exposed could have contaminated more than one facility.

Given the well-documented risks posed to the elderly by COVID-19, the lack of transparency about outbreaks there was glaring.

"Any place that's a congregate living setting is going to be highly susceptible to increased transmission," Cervantes said. "For any respiratory disease, we know that's the case, be it influenza or measlesanything transmitted via respiratory droplet."
Meanwhile, though Texas is behind a handful of other statesincluding Louisiana and Oklahomafor the highest incarceration rate in the country, it has 104 prisons, which house up to 150,000 inmates. Separately, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice also oversees 17 state jails in 16 counties, and a researcher at the agency the Texas Commission on Jail Standards told The Daily Beast on Monday that the agency regulates 239 county jails.
Unauthorized access.

As the pandemic spread through the state, the Beto Unit in Palestine, Texas, quickly became the biggest hotspot among Texas prisons, topping 200 cases last week, according to the Marshall Project. The Harris County Jail, on the other hand, was responsible for at least 132 of the cases in that county.
"In prisons and jails, the spread is like wildfire," said Michele Deitch, a senior lecturer and prison conditions expert at the University of Texas law school. "And almost certainly the number of prisoners with the virus is much greater than they realize because they aren't doing extensive testing."

"What's happening inside these prisons isn't staying inside these prisons," Deitch told The Daily Beast. "Staff are going back home to their communities each night."
In addition to congregate spaces like prisons and nursing homes, meatpacking plants have been the root of several clusters in the state.

Last week, the CDC announced that processing facilities in 19 states had reported 4,913 cases and 20 deaths among meat industry workers, signaling the need for greater protections. This week, infection rates per 1,000 people in Texas counties with hot spots tied to meatpacking plants continued to climb, according to the Tribune. For example, Moore Countythe home of the JBS Beef meatpacking planthas the highest reported infection rate in the state at 18.30 cases per 1,000.
The plantin a town called Cactusis operated by about 3,000 workers, most of them immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala or refugees from elsewhere, according to the Tribune.

Amarillo Mayor Ginger Nelson said over the weekend that a team of federal officials would help "attack" those clusters. The Department of State Health Services has said it was looking into outbreaks at JBS Beef and Tyson Foods in Shelby County, near the border with Louisiana.
In Harris County, coronavirus cases were two to three times more prevalent in some of Houston's poorest areas codes compared with the county overall, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis. The virus tended to cluster in predominantly black neighborhoods, the paper reported, in findings that mirrored a Georgia-specific analysis by the CDC last week, and larger trends showing COVID-19 hitting communities of color especially hard. Experts noted the high risk associated in some of these areas, where many residents have underlying medical conditions.
"Our concerns are obviously, now that we're reopening, that we don't want to go backward and see an uptick in cases and hospitalizations," said Shah, the Harris County health official. Over the weekend, he said, he observed more people on blankets, out fishing, and playing frisbee without distance or facial coverings.
There will be a lag, he explained, between when those who venture out and possibly contract the virus develop symptoms or seek tests. That's what health experts like him are bracing for.

"As people continue to come back into their lives, we want to make sure they remember this is not normal life as we knew it prior to COVID-19," said Shah. "We just have to keep reminding people that we have to protect ourselves and each other. Otherwise we're going to be in the same boat as we were before."
Why don't you pull out the binary favorite 200M death prediction? Remember how you posted articles from the same sources in mid-March about how Texas was mis-managing the virus? Yet, we have yet to reach the levels of Michigan, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, Florida ... mostly big lockdown stats. I genuinely try not to make it personal, but I have serious doubts anyone who has a PhD in hard sciences could so easily discount data for emotion ... or it just proves how many scientist are dollar- and agenda-chasing buffoons that turn global cooling scares into global warming scares in < 20 years.
We will know in a couple of months, won't we.
.....and how the citizens of Texas handled or mis-handled the reopening.

Based on what I see from pictures of people being out, I am afraid it will be the latter. And now we are hearing reports of heart related problems in kids. The biggest "hoax" ( a word that is greatly favored by many here) is that the young have nothing to be concerned about. I am well past the age of being considered young, but if I was I don't know what my attitude would be about trying to go back to "normal". But if I did, I sure would be trying to stay away from crowds and certainly wouldn't want an unmasked waiter to be putting down my food on my table after having breathed all over it.

I'm sorry, but I have been around the public for too long. The American public is going to screw up this re-opening by acting like nothing is different than it was four months ago.

We have only known about this virus for less than a year. We don't know for sure how it is transmitted, why it affects one healthy person mildly and another sends them to death's door and beyond, if it is seasonal or cyclic, and if it mutates to something better or worse. We have nothing for certain that has proven to be a consistent and effective treatment for the majority of people. We can't declare the final story because we don't know the final story and won't for many more months, if then.
Remember when the "experts" told us:
1. It could not be transmitted human-to-human
2. Masks are not helpful
3. This is not a big deal - go to Chinatown for dinner

Yeah ... I'm so much more suspicious about the 99%.
15 will go to zero. It will be gone in April ....
A real scientist would understand context.
Forest Bueller_bf
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Sam Lowry said:

Flaming Moderate said:

Jacques Strap said:

Flaming Moderate said:

ATL Bear said:

Sam Lowry said:

ATL Bear said:

At 2500 cases and 34 deaths in Texas, you'd think there would be some praise on how it has been handled.
That's about where New York was 12 days ago, except they had half as many deaths.
A city like New York is prime for a virus spread. People living on top of each other reliant upon public transportation. I'm willing to bet Texas won't get nearly as bad given measures taken thus far, and that infected people won't be crammed on buses and subways on their way to and from the hospital.
It has flummoxed me that cities will not shut down public transportation. I am not a clinician, but that seems like a pretty significant means to spread any virus, especially one that can live outside the body on metal surfaces. Worse too, it de-localizes the spread. Most people usually go out close to home, but public transportation spreads it across the entire region. Dallas for example is still running DART, which means an infected person in South Dallas and spread it to Plano and vice versa.
A lot of things in the shut down do not make sense.

Target can sell clothing but shops cannot?
I can ride public transportation but I can't get my hair cut?
I can stand in line at Kroger and mingle with people in the narrow aisles but I cannot go other stores that have items I need and want?
Government contruction can continue but private construction cannot.
Some factories are open and some are closed.


To quote John Wiley Price - you can get your pet's hair cut but not yours. Part of why I have not been able fully to take this seriously is this kind of thing - they same people wanting to stay locked down defend keeping public transportation open, which pretty much experts agree is the single biggest spreader of the disease.

Same with take out - if the virus can live outside the body, getting takeout is about as dangerous as going to a restaurant. Same with the free lunch programs continuing. Or I can buy lottery tickets, weed, and booze but not garden seeds. Somebody is using personal agendas to drive lockdown decisions.
There are good reasons for most of these policies. Pet haircuts and takeout involve less person-to-person contact. Free lunch programs feed people. Keeping liquor stores open reduces strain on the healthcare system in the short term. There's no expert agreement that public transportation is a particularly big problem compared with other spreaders of the disease. In fact the opinion is to the contrary. Public transportation is also important for keeping grocery and medical services in operation.


This is true. I believe one study showed person to person contact was the cause of 98% of cases. Of course you "can" get this from touching the surface that has been touched etc. by an ill person. However, it is much less likely that direct contact.

If each individual would wear a mask, this would be much easier to endure.
blackie
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Forest Bueller_bf said:

Sam Lowry said:

Flaming Moderate said:

Jacques Strap said:

Flaming Moderate said:

ATL Bear said:

Sam Lowry said:

ATL Bear said:

At 2500 cases and 34 deaths in Texas, you'd think there would be some praise on how it has been handled.
That's about where New York was 12 days ago, except they had half as many deaths.
A city like New York is prime for a virus spread. People living on top of each other reliant upon public transportation. I'm willing to bet Texas won't get nearly as bad given measures taken thus far, and that infected people won't be crammed on buses and subways on their way to and from the hospital.
It has flummoxed me that cities will not shut down public transportation. I am not a clinician, but that seems like a pretty significant means to spread any virus, especially one that can live outside the body on metal surfaces. Worse too, it de-localizes the spread. Most people usually go out close to home, but public transportation spreads it across the entire region. Dallas for example is still running DART, which means an infected person in South Dallas and spread it to Plano and vice versa.
A lot of things in the shut down do not make sense.

Target can sell clothing but shops cannot?
I can ride public transportation but I can't get my hair cut?
I can stand in line at Kroger and mingle with people in the narrow aisles but I cannot go other stores that have items I need and want?
Government contruction can continue but private construction cannot.
Some factories are open and some are closed.


To quote John Wiley Price - you can get your pet's hair cut but not yours. Part of why I have not been able fully to take this seriously is this kind of thing - they same people wanting to stay locked down defend keeping public transportation open, which pretty much experts agree is the single biggest spreader of the disease.

Same with take out - if the virus can live outside the body, getting takeout is about as dangerous as going to a restaurant. Same with the free lunch programs continuing. Or I can buy lottery tickets, weed, and booze but not garden seeds. Somebody is using personal agendas to drive lockdown decisions.
There are good reasons for most of these policies. Pet haircuts and takeout involve less person-to-person contact. Free lunch programs feed people. Keeping liquor stores open reduces strain on the healthcare system in the short term. There's no expert agreement that public transportation is a particularly big problem compared with other spreaders of the disease. In fact the opinion is to the contrary. Public transportation is also important for keeping grocery and medical services in operation.


This is true. I believe one study showed person to person contact was the cause of 98% of cases. Of course you "can" get this from touching the surface that has been touched etc. by an ill person. However, it is much less likely that direct contact.

If each individual would wear a mask, this would be much easier to endure.
They don't want to....it violates their "freedom". Of course it violates everyone else's freedom to have to be exposed to idiots that don't care about anyone else.
Oldbear83
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blackie said:

Forest Bueller_bf said:

Sam Lowry said:

Flaming Moderate said:

Jacques Strap said:

Flaming Moderate said:

ATL Bear said:

Sam Lowry said:

ATL Bear said:

At 2500 cases and 34 deaths in Texas, you'd think there would be some praise on how it has been handled.
That's about where New York was 12 days ago, except they had half as many deaths.
A city like New York is prime for a virus spread. People living on top of each other reliant upon public transportation. I'm willing to bet Texas won't get nearly as bad given measures taken thus far, and that infected people won't be crammed on buses and subways on their way to and from the hospital.
It has flummoxed me that cities will not shut down public transportation. I am not a clinician, but that seems like a pretty significant means to spread any virus, especially one that can live outside the body on metal surfaces. Worse too, it de-localizes the spread. Most people usually go out close to home, but public transportation spreads it across the entire region. Dallas for example is still running DART, which means an infected person in South Dallas and spread it to Plano and vice versa.
A lot of things in the shut down do not make sense.

Target can sell clothing but shops cannot?
I can ride public transportation but I can't get my hair cut?
I can stand in line at Kroger and mingle with people in the narrow aisles but I cannot go other stores that have items I need and want?
Government contruction can continue but private construction cannot.
Some factories are open and some are closed.


To quote John Wiley Price - you can get your pet's hair cut but not yours. Part of why I have not been able fully to take this seriously is this kind of thing - they same people wanting to stay locked down defend keeping public transportation open, which pretty much experts agree is the single biggest spreader of the disease.

Same with take out - if the virus can live outside the body, getting takeout is about as dangerous as going to a restaurant. Same with the free lunch programs continuing. Or I can buy lottery tickets, weed, and booze but not garden seeds. Somebody is using personal agendas to drive lockdown decisions.
There are good reasons for most of these policies. Pet haircuts and takeout involve less person-to-person contact. Free lunch programs feed people. Keeping liquor stores open reduces strain on the healthcare system in the short term. There's no expert agreement that public transportation is a particularly big problem compared with other spreaders of the disease. In fact the opinion is to the contrary. Public transportation is also important for keeping grocery and medical services in operation.


This is true. I believe one study showed person to person contact was the cause of 98% of cases. Of course you "can" get this from touching the surface that has been touched etc. by an ill person. However, it is much less likely that direct contact.

If each individual would wear a mask, this would be much easier to endure.
They don't want to....it violates their "freedom". Of course it violates everyone else's freedom to have to be exposed to idiots that don't care about anyone else.
Go hide under your bed then. Someone will come tell you when it's all over.
Florda_mike
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Give it up TDS boy
TexasScientist
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Florda_mike said:

Give it up TDS boy
You must be a follower of Q.
Oldbear83
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TexasScientist said:

Florda_mike said:

Give it up TDS boy
You must be a follower of Q.
Is that a Star Trek reference?

Flaming Moderate
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https://www.statesman.com/news/20200509/why-has-texas-fared-better-than-many-states-in-confronting-coronavirus
 
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