This is a twitter thread transcript from Andy Slavitt on the State of Texas vs COVID-19. Edited lightly for easier reading.
Texas vs Covid-19: Deathmatch
COVID Update: When cases drop, we should rejoice. But in other circles, it’s when trouble begins. And as often happens, it’s beginning in Texas. Last time cases were dropping, Gov Ron DeSantis felt the time was right to get cocky. To tell the world that he wasn’t about to allow the state to fall victim to “Faucism.” Instead he was for freedom.
What did that mean?
-Boats can’t dock if they ask people if their vaccinated
-Schools can’t require masks
-Why vaccinate when you can treat sick people?
Ultimately it meant the plurality of people who died this year in the US died under his watch in Florida. We know how that turned out for Florida. Full hospitals. Full pediatric hospitals. Thousands dying.
DeSantis bragging about how Florida has done it better than everyone toned down for a bit. If only having him shut up was enough of a saving grace for the misery he created. Speaking of not shutting up, it’s Texas’s turn to overreact to its reduction in cases.
This week governor Abbott predictably but strangely decided he is not going to allow anyone in the state to require people get vaccinated— the one thing that saves lives. Texas has lost 68,000 people to COVID.
3,800 people died last year in Texas in car accidents.
Yet for whatever strange reason, Abbott doesn’t seem to be bothered by the Federal requirement on seatbelts. During storms where people lose their lives, Abbott orders people to leave their homes so they don’t die. (Talk about government overreach.)
But there’s something different about COVID apparently. Seat belt requirements are ok.
Auto insurance requirements are ok.
Measles vaccines are ok.
Fire insurance requirements are ok.
None of these things save as many lives as COVID vaccines.
States and schools can require lots of things. But not a COVID vaccine. To say nothing of a woman’s choice over her own body, Texas restricts people’s freedom in lots of ways. Every day.
So what’s Abbott’s obsession with not preventing people from getting COVID? Of course Texas is the state with the highest uninsured rate in the nation.
Abbott & Texas turned down billions of dollars of Federal money to provide Medicaid insurance to millions. There’s a theme here. And simply stated, Abbott doesn’t seem to care if people in Texas get health care & stay alive.
In the case of COVID & Medicaid, it’s not about money. Both are entirely free to the state and to people. 12/ Despite cases dropping, COVID remains a threat. With Delta, COVID is the most rapidly spreading respiratory illness possibly of all time.
What leaves quickly can come back quickly. But for COVID to be dangerous, it requires the humans. Where it can replicate, where people aren’t vaccinated, COVID spreads fast.
With humans spreading it, COVID can grow fast.
With politicians like Abbott, COVID can thrive.