Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declines to take action as COVID-19 surges

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Governor Greg Abbott has recently steadfastly refused to put in place nationwide safeguards to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

But with cases and hospital stays reaching heights not seen since February, Abbott’s pandemic playbook for the past few weeks has largely focused on blocking local mandates and pledging to protect the rights of the unvaccinated.

Abbott recently stated that Texas was “the end of government mandates.” And he unveiled a second special session agenda on Thursday to ensure that children can return to school in person this fall, if they want, with no mask or vaccine requirements – a move that comes under the updated guidelines from the U.S. centers for disease control, the “universal” recommend indoor masking by all students. “

Abbott, who publicly campaigned for vaccinations and got his vaccination on television, summed up his current mentality on the pandemic during a speech in Dallas on Wednesday that focused on the economy and other problems facing the state. Regarding the pandemic, he started by encouraging vaccination and calling it the “safest way to end the pandemic”. But then he made one thing clear.

“There will be no government-mandated shutdowns or mask requirements in Texas in the future,” Abbott said. “Everyone already knows what to do.”

Abbott began shifting his focus to personal responsibility for government interference after ending his own statewide mandates earlier this year, but he’s doubled that position in recent weeks as the Delta variant is wreaking havoc across the country and again causes demands for stricter security measures.

The numbers even got the state health department to sound the alarm like Abbott failed to, tweeted on Wednesday that Texas “is facing a new wave” and the variant “has undone much of the progress made in ending the pandemic.”

The obstruction by the state is once again frustrating big city leaders, mostly Democrats, who want more power in the fight against the virus.

“The only other option is to violate the governor’s order, and that creates a great deal of confusion and in all likelihood” [will] lead to legal proceedings, ”said Nelson Wolff, the normally meek Bexar County judge. “I think his order stipulates that an officer who tries to do so may be fined and removed from office. If anyone has to be removed from office, it is the governor. “

While Wolff said Bexar County was unwilling to defy Abbott, some local governments have already done so. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner announced Monday that the city’s nearly 22,000 employees must wear face covering in city buildings where social distancing is not possible.

With Abbott’s recent hardened opposition to new virus control measures, his critics see politics at play. They point to the main opposition he drew in his re-election campaign in 2022 and national pressure on GOP governors to lead the way in keeping their states open.

At the same time, Abbott has shown keen interest in stopping the spread of COVID-19 among migrants entering the state across the Mexican border, part of a crusade against illegal immigration that has intensified since President Joe Biden took office. Abbott has issued an executive order urging state forces to overtake drivers carrying migrants “who pose a risk to the transmission of COVID-19.” A federal judge blocked the order on Tuesday.

And that’s despite increasingly alarming coronavirus numbers in places like Texas. New daily cases and hospital admissions have seen a strong upward trend, reaching levels not seen since the last surge this winter. The state’s positivity rate – the percentage of virus tests that failed positive – was 17.7% on Tuesday, well above the 10% threshold that Abbott previously identified as a danger zone.

Additionally, in several hospital regions of the state, the proportion of COVID-19 patients who include their capacity has increased to over 15%. That was the threshold once used to postpone local officials from reopening stores in a region – until Abbott effectively gutted them with his latest arrangement.

“I think it’s pretty clear from the data that Texas is in the middle – or, depending on how you look at it – at the beginning of a really big pandemic surge, and not just in case, but specifically, when you look at health needs across the state, “said Spencer Fox, associate director of the COVID-19 Modeling Consortium at the University of Texas at Austin. “Many regions are now confronted with numbers that we have not seen since winter.”

Fox attributed the rising numbers to the state’s 44% “lagging” vaccination rate – in the back of the field nationwide – and Texans returning to their pre-pandemic lifestyle.

“Right now, people are generally acting as normally as they were at any point in the pandemic,” Fox said.

The coronavirus situation in Texas as well as Florida has increasingly attracted the attention of the White House. During a briefing Thursday morning, White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients noted that the two states have seen a third of the new cases nationwide and over a third of the new hospital admissions in the past seven days.

The President has also taken note of this. During his remarks on Tuesday at the White House about the pandemic, Biden said the “most extreme of these measures,” anticipating mask and vaccine mandates, are taking place in Texas.

“I’m telling these governors, ‘Please help,'” said Biden. “But if you don’t want to help, at least avoid people who are trying to do the right thing. Use your power to save lives. “

For now, Abbott’s fate of the Texas pandemic depends more or less on vaccination. Although the number of doses per day has been increasing since early July, the state has a lot to do. His 44% full vaccination rate on Tuesday ranks 36th nationwide.

Abbott has long been a proponent of vaccination and received it on camera in Austin late last year. At the same time, he emphasized that vaccinations in Texas are “always voluntary”.

In June, he signed a bill banning companies from asking their customers to provide evidence of the vaccine. This followed its April executive order that banned government agencies, political divisions, and organizations receiving public funding from issuing “vaccine passports” or otherwise requiring someone to provide evidence of a COVID-19 vaccine in order to receive services.

More recently, elected officials from both parties have an additional reason to stress vaccination: almost everyone seriously ill with the virus is reportedly unvaccinated across the country.

“For people who are hesitant or concerned about getting vaccinated, the bottom line is that you only have two options: either get infected or vaccinated,” said Rep. Greg Bonnen, R-Friendswood, a doctor, said Tuesday. “We have to communicate this as clearly as possible and encourage people to end this pandemic in this way.”

Public health experts say the Texas pandemic won’t help next school year, especially after Abbott’s recent order made it clear that no district can require students to wear masks or be vaccinated. Abbott went further on the second special session agenda he unveiled Thursday, calling on lawmakers to effectively codify this executive order.

Fox said Texas “is leaning in the wrong direction” for a safe return to face-to-face learning.

The Texas Chapter of the American Federation of Teachers has urged Abbott to overturn his orders and make school districts prescribe masks if they so choose. On Tuesday, the chapter released results from a membership poll last week that showed 78% – 7,384 respondents – would like Abbott to let districts decide whether they need masks.

“As we celebrate returning to school, we shouldn’t be sloppy and reckless,” said Zeph Capo, president of Texas AFT, in a press release on the survey.

There are also political considerations for Abbott. He is up for re-election next year and already has at least three main challengers, best known of which are former Senator Don Huffines of Dallas and former GOP chairman of Texas Allen West. Both have long been critics of Abbott’s pandemic management – and they’ve both been holding his breath as calls for new nationwide restrictions mount.

“Texans need restrictions on illegals who enter our state without Covid tests and violate our rule of law,” West said in a statement. “We don’t need a return to the binding behavior of legal, law-abiding Texans.”

Disclosure: Texas AFT and the University of Texas at Austin are financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization funded in part by donations from members, foundations, and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the journalism of the Tribune. You can find a full list of them here.

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