Abbott Self-Serving
To the Editor:
Gov. Abbott’s behavior about COVID is quite simple to understand given the significance of political primaries. Doing his job as governor to serve the public good will certainly increase the chances that he will lose the 2022 primary and his job. He cares more about himself than he does for Texans.
Seventy-three additional children in the 19-county North Texas region around Dallas were diagnosed with COVID-19 on Aug. 6, the day after public schools opened in many parts of the state. How many pediatric ICU beds are available in those counties? Zero. Zero beds if those with COVID become more critically ill. Zero, if a child is injured in a car wreck. Zero, if a chronically ill child takes a turn for the worse. Hospitals across the state are at that mark or headed there. Seven hundred eightythree children were admitted to Texas hospitals with COVID-19 between July 1 and Aug. 9.
How has Gov. Abbott reacted to the tragedy of children too young to be vaccinated falling ill with COVID? He has decreed that no school may take the simple, painless action of requiring pupils and all school staff to be masked. His dictate ignores science and the will of a vast majority of parents. It panders to the zealots in his party’s right wing. Abbott and his Republican cronies in the courts and Legislature have created their own Children’s Crusade to solidify their power. Masks not only help fend off the COVID-19 virus, but also outbreaks of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. Texas hospitals are seeing an unseasonable outbreak of RSV, which the Texas Tribune said was almost dormant last year when mask wearing was required.
How many children must be sentenced to this trauma? How many will die waiting for a machine to help them breathe? How many parents must suffer the agony of watching small bodies hooked up to ventilators? How many nurses and doctors, respiratory therapists and other hospital personnel must endure endless days of fighting a battle that cannot be won with the governor’s self-serving and corrupt leadership?
Are Abbott and GOP leadership to blame for this sickness and death among Texas children? Texas Department of State Health Services information would say yes. It said children up to 11 years old are more at risk of contracting Delta and other variants because they can’t get vaccinated. The Delta variant is by far the most common for new infections and is worse than other strains. It spreads more easily and sends more infected people to the hospital. Unlike Abbott, TDSHS defers to the federal Centers for Disease Control on who should wear masks. “People, including children older than 2 who are not fully vaccinated,” CDC says. So, Abbott put them all in cramped classrooms for six or more hours a day and forbids independent school districts, cities, and counties from requiring they wear masks. And he’s using Texans’ tax dollars to get courts to ratify and gratify his incompetence.
If Abbott wanted to save Texans’ lives, he could have dedicated special sessions of the Legislature to stamping out COVID-19, which had killed 53,048 Texans by Aug. 14. He could have declared it Job One to prevent more deaths. Instead, he dedicates the sessions to codifying the suppression of voter rights. He could have asked the Legislature to discover how to remedy the learning gap created by a year out of school. He could have directed the $250 million he sent to buy a piece of Mexican border “wall” to improve school classroom ventilation. He could have worked with and listened to local leaders and school district administrators who know their communities best. He could have asked lawmakers to figure out how to head off mass evictions the pandemic is causing and ensured all displaced children have a home. Instead, he turned a blind eye toward our children’s welfare, commanded their local leaders to do the same and sued them when they refused to comply.
Without a doubt, Abbott cares more about himself than he does for the health of Texans.
Kirk Pate
Flatonia