Voting Republican is Deadly

Republican politicians typically talk about freedom, low taxes, and against big government. The result of their actions in support of those notions is often not in the best interests of their constituents not even the folks that voted for them or simply contrary their claims.

A case in point is the COVID-19 pandemic and the high proportion of deaths among Republicans versus Democrats. In research conducted by Yale University School of Management’s Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham and Jacob Wallace and Jason L. Schwartz of the Yale School of Public Health they found that excess deaths during the pandemic were 76% higher among Republicans than Democrats in Ohio and Florida. In another study Mauricio Santillana, a professor specializing in epidemiology at Northeastern Univesity and a team of researchers studied 2,000 counties across the country and found that the median death rate for counties with the strongest Republican leaning was between 40% and 300% higher than the counties that leaned Democrat. Santillana believes this is symptomatic of a heavily politicized public health crisis. The combination of failure to enact strong public health measures and spouting misinformation was deadly. Lots of freedom and anti-big government rhetoric from the state’s Republicans including Gov. Abbott regarding mask mandates and lockdowns.

The Texas Tribune recently reported that “Fatal crashes in rural areas accounted for 51% of Texas’ 4,489 traffic fatalities in 2021, even though only about 10% of the state’s population lives in a rural area, according to data from the state’s department of transportation.” Many of those crashes are due to lack of safety precautions like shoulders or guardrails that are generally found on more urban highways. The high rate of fatalities is also due to high speeds and failure to wear seatbelts; think “freedom” rhetoric. Nationally the trend is similar though not quite as drastic as here in Texas. We all know that rural counties have mostly Republican voters and are run by Republican elected officials and that Texas is governed by Republicans at the state level so there are only Republicans to blame for this disparity. On the other hand they claim to be keeping your taxes low.

The Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee report called for by the Texas legislature was delayed three months and released early in December. The report estimates that up to 90% of the maternal deaths may have been preventable. Severe medical complications from pregnancy and childbirth also increased drastically between 2018 at 58.2 per 10,000 and 2020 at 72.7 cases per 10,000 deliveries in Texas. Advocates for maternal medical care suggest the report was delayed for political reasons otherwise it would have embarrassed government officials right before the election.

Obstetric hemorrhage was the leading cause of pregnancy-related death in Texas, accounting for a quarter of cases. The most common cause of hemorrhage deaths was ectopic pregnancies, in which a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus. Left untreated, these nonviable pregnancies can rupture, causing life-threatening complications such as severe blood loss and sepsis. If the woman doesn't mis-carry the only treatment is an abortion. Given the state’s near-total abortion ban you can see where death is a very real possibility. Knowing who voted for and signed into law the Texas abortion ban there is no doubt who is to blame. Being a new mother in Texas is more dangerous to life and health than most other states. Republicans are pro-life unless you’re a pregnant woman.

Voting Republican is risking your life and the lives of your loved ones.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - December 28, 2022

Martin Luther on Pandemic Responsibilities

I find it really interesting that the majority of anti-mask and anti-vaccination activists are Republican who are vocally Christian. You’d think given the early years of Christianity when much of the Roman world was consumed in plague it was Christians who cared for the sick and dying such that their caring and sacrifice made many converts that such a tradition would be maintained today. Instead we see many behaving in an uncaring and frankly un-Christian manner flouting mask requirements and worse beating those seeking to care for their fellows by reminding everyone to wear masks in their places of business.

Martin Luther had a lot to say about how Christians should behave in the midst of a pandemic, as the Black Death, bubonic plague, swept through Wittenberg and much of Europe. Luther was asked one of his followers Reverend Doctor Johann Hess, pastor in the city of Breslau, about proper behavior for a Christian in response to the deadly plague. Luther wrote a multi-page pamphlet — “Whether One May Flee From A Deadly Plague” — in response.

Regarding the responsibility of public officials in time of such a crisis Luther wrote: Accordingly, all those in public office such as mayors, judges, and the like are under obligation to remain. This, too, is God’s word, which institutes secular authority and commands that town and country be ruled, protected, and preserved…

Luther’s view of the individual’s responsibility toward others was also quite clear, he wrote: It is not forbidden but rather commanded that by the sweat of our brow we should seek our daily food, clothing, and all we need and avoid destruction and disaster whenever we can, as long as we do so without detracting from our love and duty toward our neighbor. How much more appropriate it is therefore to seek to preserve life and avoid death if this can be done without harm to our neighbor. Anyone who does not do that for his neighbor, but forsakes him and leaves him to his misfortune, becomes a murderer in the sight of God.

Luther pulled no punches on the topic of “Disregarding Everything Which Might Counteract the Plague and Death” writing: They are much too rash and reckless, tempting God and disregarding everything which might counteract death and the plague. They disdain the use of medicines; they do not avoid places and persons infected by the plague, but lightheartedly make sport of it and wish to prove how independent they are. They say that it is God’s punishment; if he wants to protect them he can do so with-out medicines or our carefulness. This is not trusting God but tempting him. God has created medicines and provided us with intelligence to guard and take good care of the body so that we can live in good health.

If one makes no use of intelligence or medicine when he could do so without detriment to his neighbor, such a person injures his body and must beware lest he become a suicide in God’s eyes.

Luther took a dim view of anyone who couldn’t be bothered to act in the best interest of the community likening not taking protective measures to safeguard one’s neighbors to letting a neighbor’s house burn without attempting to put out the fire. He considered it murder. I imagine he’d take the same dim view of today’s right-wingers who spread their anti-mask and anti-vaccine vitriol while simultaneously spreading COVID-19 and from time to time dying of it.

Gov. Abbott Willing to Sacrifice Our Children

Gov. Greg Abbott is doing his best to sacrifice the life of your child or grand-child. By issuing an order banning local governments from passing mask mandates Abbott has willfully chosen to sacrifice the lives and health of the children of this state. You may hear plenty of “its might right” talk coming from Republicans and especially Libertarians who don’t want to wear a mask in public but they’re wrong.

Isn't your right to drive drunk? Shouldn't parents be able to decide whether or not to use a car seat for infants and toddlers? Why can’t paint companies and gasoline refiners use lead in their products like they used to? The answer is public health; we all have a right to life and health that cannot be subordinated to the right of an individual to just do as they please. That’s why government must have the power to mandate public mask wearing and should use it at this critical time. In fact the U.S. Constitution makes that very point in the preamble which states: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Here in Texas the weekly number of new, confirmed cases of COVID-19 is now greater than it was last year at this time. Hospital capacities in ICU’s all over the state are again near peak levels and deaths are again on the rise. As parents, children, and teachers prepare for the new school year its incumbent on school boards and administrations to look out for the best interests of those children. It’s important that they consider the best available information.

At the request of the North Carolina legislature Duke University researchers tracked COVID-19 transmission in North Carolina K-12 schools across 100 school districts, 14 charter schools, 160,549 school staffers, and more than 864,515 students attending in-school instruction.  The researchers, Dr. Kanecia Zimmerman, associate professor of pediatrics at the Duke University School of Medicine, and Dr. Danny Benjamin, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Duke Health wrote; "We have learned a few things for certain. Although vaccination is the best way to prevent COVID-19, universal masking is a close second, and with masking in place, in-school learning is safe and more effective than remote instruction, regardless of community rates of infection."

Dr. Benjamin stressed the efficacy of universal in-school masking in an interview with PBS News Hour stating "What we found was despite having extremely widespread COVID in the communities in North Carolina, if universal masking is in place, the chances of one child infecting another is less than 1 percent," he said. Voluntary masking, on the other hand, is about as useless as universal masking is effective. "Having a voluntary mask policy is like having a no-peeing section of a pool or a no-smoking section on an airplane," Dr. Benjamin explained. "That's absurd."

Given their constitutional duty to promote the general welfare, in this case public health, it is necessary for all levels of government to have the ability to impose mask mandates as appropriate in order to protect the lives and health of our children whether some parents are smart enough to understand that or not. Gov. Abbott’s presidential ambitions are insufficient cause to sacrifice our precious children’s health or lives.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - August 18, 2021

Anti-Vaxxers Threaten All

My 91 year old mother lived in a time when Diptheria and Pertussis were serious threats to the lives of children and upwards of 35% of children didn’t live to adulthood. When I was 5 years old, in 1964-65, a wave of Rubella swept the United States causing 11,000 babies to be born deaf, 3,500 born blind, and 1,800 born intellectually disabled along with 2,100 neonatal deaths. Texas public schools require that students are vaccinated at appropriate ages for Diptheria, Pertussis, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Polio, Hepatitis A and B among other diseases. Today we rarely hear of children dying of any of these diseases and that is only because of vaccines.

Last week the San Antonio Express News reported that Bexar 55.53% of residents ages 12 and up had been vaccinated while the rate in Comal is 53.49%, Kendall is 55.73%, and sadly Guadalupe is only 47.6%. In Bexar County the positivity rate, meaning the number of people testing positive out of all COVID tests has doubled since the end of June and was 13.5% at the time the article was published. Hospitalization and ICU admissions are also increasing. 97% of people hospitalized for COVID-19 in the U.S. are unvaccinated, according to NPR. Numerous hospitals across the country have gone back to delaying elective procedures as they need the beds to treat COVID-19 patients.

COVID-19 is once again a major public health threat as hospitalizations rise and 83% of new cases are the highly contagious Delta variant yet our governor has stated he will not order a mask mandate. There is plenty of vaccine available and numerous convenient locations to get it as most local pharmacies are offering it but too many people reject the opportunity claiming they know better than the overwhelming majority of medical professionals. These are the same folks who refused to wear masks and claim that the 610,000+ deaths from COVID-19 are overstated.

I’ve lost patience with them, after all they’re mostly people who voted for Trump and continue to believe the election was stolen regardless of the lack of evidence. Early this year when we were under a mask mandate many of these irresponsible people refused to wear a mask or used material so thin that it was of no value and claimed that those who feared contracting the virus should just stay home. I take the opposite view, if they don’t want to wear a mask in public then they should be the ones who stay home and let the responsible folks take care of business in a safe, healthy environment.

I would accept their right to get very ill and perhaps die from a preventable illness  but the problem is having so many unvaccinated people in the community provides a pool for more variants to evolve in and threatens the lives of children under 12 who can’t yet be vaccinated and those with compromised immune systems like many cancer survivors. These folks are like Typhoid Mary and aren’t willing to accept their responsibility to the larger community in the name of some warped notion of personal freedom. To para-phrase an old quote: Your liberty to cough out a virus ends just where my nose begins.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - July 28, 2021

Biden Restores America

Last week President Joe Biden spoke to congress and the American people to let us know what has been accomplished in his first hundred days and what he still plans to do. When Biden took office he promised 100 million COVID-19 vaccine shots in 100 days – the country is on track to have provided over 220 million COVID shots in 100 days.  Unfortunately due to poor leadership Texas is among the 20 worst states in getting our populous vaccinated. 19 of those 20 states are run by Republicans, which should really come as no surprise.

The American Rescue Plan passed by congress is delivering food and nutrition assistance to millions of Americans facing hunger – and hunger is down sharply already.  In addition the plan is providing rental assistance to keep people from being evicted from their homes and providing loans to keep small businesses open and their employees on the job. Due to re-opening enrollment in Affordable Care Act insurance plans an additional 800,000 Americans have enrolled so they now have access to regular health care when needed.

As a result of American Rescue Plan, the nation is on track to cut child poverty in America in half this year. Hopefully that translates to a large drop in food insecurity among children here in Texas as   That’s important not only for those children but the future of our economy as a whole because children living in poverty don’t do as well in school and have higher dropout rates leading to lower lifetime earnings, more public assistance, and another generation of children living in poverty. 4 million individual Texans of which 1.6 million are children aren’t sure when or where they’ll get their next meal. Texas is one of just 15 states with higher food insecurity than the national average.

Biden’s proposed American Jobs Plan seeks to create jobs by addressing some of the nation’s most pressing concerns. Today up to 10 million homes and more than 400,000 schools and child care centers use lead pipes in water lines. The American Jobs Plan would replace 100% of the nation’s lead pipes and service lines so every American can turn on the faucet and be certain to drink clean water that will not cause brain damage and shorten their life span.

In order to keep the United States competitive in the world economy the American Jobs Plan wouId create jobs connecting every American with high-speed internet, including 35% of rural Americans who still don’t have it. It creates jobs by building a modern power grid, something Texans know from our experience in February is desperately needed.

It will cost a lot of money to do what Biden has proposed and to pay for it he wants to increase taxes on the wealthiest among us, which of course has Republicans making evidence free claims that it will hurt the economy. After the speech Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman pointed out that the upper-class tax increases Biden is proposing to help him pay for this middle-class renaissance are unlikely to affect the economy the way Republicans envision. They’ve been running this same trick play for decades now, and it looks like we may finally be learning how to stop it. Bill Clinton’s tax increases on top earners didn’t just fail to bring disaster, they brought robust job growth. Krugman also noted that people “seem to forget that Barack Obama presided over a significant hike in high-end taxes at the beginning of his second term; the economy continued to add jobs rapidly, at the rate of about 2.5 million a year.”

Published in the Seguin Gazette - May 5, 2021

Right-wing Anti-Science Threat

A century ago an influential man convinced the leader of great nation that his pseudo-scientific notions about agriculture were valid and used his influence to reject the findings of thousands of biologists. That nation outlawed teaching genetics and Darwinian evolution and disallowed plant hybridization which then led to the starvation of millions as crop yields projected by the pseudo-science purveyor failed to materialize. When the nation’s leader finally lost power the country was decades behind other competing nations in biological sciences and continued to have trouble feeding its population for decades more. The country was the Soviet Union, the political leader was Joseph Stalin, and the pseudo-science advocate was Trofim Lysenko.

In the U.S., over the past decade similar anti-science attitudes have taken over an influential group of politicians and their supporters. The clearest example of it is the current pandemic during which we’ve seen Republicans denigrate those who wear masks in public as unnecessary regardless of the public health science showing wearing masks reduces the spread of COVID-19. Our Governor prohibited cities from enforcing mask requirements. The previous White House occupant even claimed that the pandemic was a hoax and it would go away after the election.

In the United States, more than 565,000 deaths have been attributed to COVID-19, research results released at a Brookings Institute conference indicates 250,000 of those deaths were avoidable if by last May the country had adopted widespread mask, social distancing, and testing protocols while awaiting a vaccine, estimated Andrew Atkeson, economics professor at University of California, Los Angeles.

Recent polling shows that 42% of Republicans say they will definitely not get any of the COVID-19 vaccinations. The percentage hasn’t changed in months and recent concerns about the safety of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine have had no impact. For months conspiracy theorists have been claiming that Microsoft founder Bill Gates has worked behind the scenes to see to it that a microchip is injected into everyone when they are vaccinated. We’re not talking about a handful of loons, there are thousands of believers showing up at protests. They offer no evidence to support their ridiculous claims yet their movement grows.

I guess none of us should be all that surprised at any of this as Republicans have been taking anti-science positions on global climate change for decades but at least on that topic we could see that it was largely due to the influence of corporate campaign donations. In the case of the pandemic it seems to simply be a way to activate Republican tribal behavior as a goal unto itself rather than as part of a specific policy goal.

It seems as if anti-science attitudes have joined with guns and bible thumping as part of the identifiers for being a good Republican. It hasn’t always been this way as the National Academy of Sciences was founded under Abraham Lincoln and NASA was founded by the Eisenhower administration.

These right-wing anti-science views are not exclusive to the United States, in fact such idiocy has spread across Europe. If it were just about COVID-19 vaccines I’d says just let the fools die off but it’s not. It plays into the more important issue of fighting global climate change and that is an existential threat that will impact future generations and cause untold suffering if we allow the right to control national policy again while they are still in the grasp of insanity.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - April 21, 2021

Not Much Peace and Joy

This holiday season instead of the peace and joy that we long for, tension and anxiety abound. For millions of Americans it is the anxiety of not knowing if they’ll be able to keep a roof over their heads and feed their families while employers layoff more workers due to the pandemic. For others it’s worry about family members who have tested positive for COVID-19 many of whom are hospitalized. For some it is ongoing attempts by Republicans led by the con-artist in chief and egged on by convicted criminal Gen. Michael Flynn to subvert the constitution and turn this country into an authoritarian state.

Low income workers are the ones hardest hit by the pandemic and the pathetic response our government has provided. Around 20% of workers who were earning less than $12 an hour are unemployed now, that’s depression level unemployment. Food banks are overwhelmed by the demand for nutritional assistance. Many more Texas children are going hungry this year than last. Texas senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz are responsible for making the aid package that congress finally passed a day late and a dollar short. The pandemic relief legislation only provides a $600 per person of direct payments compared to $1200 per adult in the Spring.  According to CNN other provisions include “Aid for struggling small businesses, including more than $284 billion for forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans” As well as “$300 per week for enhanced unemployment insurance benefits, $25 billion for rental assistance and an eviction moratorium extension, $13 billion in increased Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and child nutrition benefits.” The bill also includes “Funding totaling in the billions of dollars to support coronavirus vaccine distribution, testing and contract tracing efforts and health care workers.”

The winter season only started Monday but the predicted spike in COVID-19 infections and deaths didn’t wait. The 7 day average of deaths due to the virus exceeds 2,500 a day with one day reaching 3,400. Hospitals are once again running out of space and personnel to treat those infected. Our medical professionals have learned a lot about treating the virus and have improved survival rates yet the rate of death is still climbing. Early in the year rural areas felt safe and residents thought the virus was only a problem in cities but that changed this fall and now they realize they’re at risk too. The incompetent in the White House and his bumbling staff have repeatedly failed the country, first in not coordinating efforts to acquire and produce personal protective equipment for medical staff then in failing to order more of the vaccine when Pfizer offered additional supplies months ago. It’s a good thing the Moderna vaccine has proven safe and effective and has now been approved in the U.S. In a hopeful sign the incoming Biden team has made it clear that fighting the pandemic is among its highest priorities.

While it’s true that Trump’s “crack” team of lawyers has repeatedly failed to convince any court in the land that their conspiracy laden and fact free lawsuits have any merit that hasn’t stopped the president from spreading those false claims and encouraging his supporters in the general public to use force to overturn the election. The convicted criminal Trump pardoned, Gen. Michael Flynn, is reported to be advocating for the president to declare martial law and send troops to collect voting machines in several states where new elections would be held. Until Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take office I won’t stop being worried.

All that said, I wish you peace and joy this holiday season.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - December 23, 2020

The President's Dereliction of Duty

 “It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle—it will disappear”, so said the science denier-in-chief on February 27. The president repeated such claims for months. Now it’s the first week of October, he’s is in the hospital with a case of COVID-19. As of Sunday afternoon the smoke and mirrors put up by the White House has obscured just how sick the president is.

We do know that his symptoms are severe enough that his doctors have given him a three drug cocktail including an experimental drug and Dexamethasone, which is a steroid that the World Health Organization and the National Institutes of Health recommend be given only in severe cases. One in ten cases of COVID-19 requires hospitalization; less that two in a hundred require treatment in an intensive care unit (ICU). Being the president it’s likely that he is being monitored similarly to an ICU patient regardless of the severity of his condition but the drugs he’s being given suggest he is in bad shape and of those who have been ill enough to be treated in an ICU less than half survive. I’d like to point out that his doctors are not treating him with his fantasy drug of choice, hydroxychloroquine, which he touted repeatedly as a cure.

We know the president tested positive on Wednesday so he was infected already when he appeared at the debate and made fun of Joe Biden for always wearing a mask. Perhaps if he had shown the leadership that Americans expect of a president he would have been wearing a mask since March and would have encouraged his followers to do so as well instead of advocating against them. Had he done so, his aide Hope Hicks and three Republican senators might not have also tested positive for COVID-19 last week. This nation might also not have suffered at least some of the 210,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19 so far if he’d actually taken the leadership role expected of a president.

This president’s failure to act according to expert advice from the medical community has put public health at risk. That failure has left us with the ninth highest rate of deaths per capita in the entire world. We’re in company with such third world nations as Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Ecuador. This isn’t just incompetence; as Professor Allan Lichtman, a historian at American University for 50 years, put it “This is the greatest dereliction of duty in the history of the U.S. presidency.”

Typically a COVID-19 hospital stay is one to two weeks while those who are treated in an intensive care unit and survive typically exit the hospital in two to four weeks. So if the president recovers he’ll likely have just three weeks left to campaign and possibly much less. I wonder how his supporters will spin his hospitalization. How will they react if he actually dies of COVID-19 in the coming weeks? Will they shrug it off? Will they claim some sort of liberal or deep state conspiracy is responsible? More important, how will the 4% of likely voters who are undecided see this failure to even protect himself?

Republicans from the president on down to the state legislature have failed to take action to minimize the spread of a deadly contagion and they deserve to be voted out. In Guadalupe County there are fourteen races with Democrats running and this is the first election since straight ticket voting was eliminated. Be sure to pick all fourteen Democrats when you go to the polls or fill out your mail in ballot.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - October 7, 2020

Rigth-wing Partisanship Deadly Dangerous

Partisanship in the 21^st century can be deadly dangerous, let me give you a few examples. Republican led Texas continues to rise on the list of states by proportion of COVID-19 deaths as compared to population, now standing at number 17 with more than 30% greater proportional death toll than California, the state Texas Republicans like to bash most. According to a recently published study by Elisa F. Long, M. Keith Chen, and Ryne Rohla at the Anderson School of Management, University of California Los Angeles, Republicans were more than 10% more likely Democrats to disregard local orders to evacuate their coastal residences in the hours before a hurricane struck the area. The Department of Homeland Security now run by illegally appointed Chad Wolf has been downplaying and shelving reports on the threat of white nationalist terrorism according to a whistleblower complaint by intelligence-division chief Brian Murphy, he was told it was blocked because of the way it might “reflect upon President Trump.”

It’s been pretty clear for a while now that COVID-19 is deadly and while not a Black Plague level catastrophe, it has now killed nearly 200,000 Americans making it the third leading cause of death in the U.S behind cancer and heart disease. COVID-19 has proven to be more than three times as deadly as the flu and the year isn’t over yet. With more than three months left to 2020 the death toll is likely to approach four times the worst flu rate in decades. The U.S. has the tenth highest proportion of deaths to population in the world. Much of the death toll could have been prevented if the president had taken the measures that other countries such as South Korea and Germany did. Even if you’re inclined to discount the recording of Trump telling journalist Bob Woodward that he was downplaying the danger of COVID-19 to avoid a panic it is clear that the president failed to take appropriate measures in a timely manner and continued to discount the danger in public. His supporters in government and those in the public at large have followed his rhetoric with dangerous actions, some have paid the ultimate price by dying from the disease they didn’t believe was deadly.

In the days before hurricane Irma struck Florida in 2017, right wing blowhards Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter used their media platforms to downplay the seriousness of the hurricane claiming it was a liberal hoax. Evacuation patterns show that a significant fraction of Republican voters fell for their spiel and risked their lives as a Category 5 hurricane made landfall nearby.

While the popular vote loser occupying the White House continues to spout claims of the dangers of antifa and Black Lives Matter, he and his appointees are misleading both the public and state and local law enforcement agencies with distorted reports downplaying white nationalist groups like “Boogaloo Boys” and others while at the same time falsely claiming liberal groups are the real danger. Since these reports are coming from federal agencies that have been respected for providing factual information in the past state and local law enforcement act on that information and thus improperly allocate resources and endanger the public.

The final run-up and aftermath of the November election likely will see all of this get worse as Republican voters fall for the president’s claims of voter fraud and election results are delayed by the need to unusually high numbers of mail in ballots. Remember that when asked if he would leave the White House if he lost the election he said “We’ll see”.

Voting Safely Up To County

Early voting for the Primary runoff starts Monday next week, Guadalupe County’s Elections Administrator has announced a series of measures her office will take to prevent the spread of COVID-19 unfortunately she believes is limited by the Secretary of State guidance to suggesting voluntary measures to voters. If a voter doesn’t want to wear a face covering elections staff can’t require it and that puts both staff and other voters at risk. One good cough or sneeze not covered can spread the virus to anyone in the area by entering through the eye.

While the trend lines for the original COVID-19 hotspots like New York and New Jersey continue downward the lines for Texas and Florida are going up at about the same rates. Naysayers claim that infection rates are going up due to more testing but that doesn’t account for the increase in the number of infected found per number of people tested or the increasing number of people requiring hospitalization due to the virus.

Many areas of Texas such as San Antonio are reporting record numbers of hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 over the last week with the rate going up nearly every day for the last two weeks. Several restaurants that opened in Comal County shortly after Gov. Abbott relaxed pandemic precautions have had to close again due to large numbers of their staff becoming infected.

This issue is extremely important to me as my wife has serious health issues that put her at high risk of death if she were to contract COVID-19. Her doctors have urged her to avoid going anywhere beyond the house. As it stands today state law prohibits many people like her from voting by absentee ballot. Even if she could vote absentee, I would still be at risk of infecting her if I go vote and become exposed to someone who is infected and not wearing a face covering.

Our county commissioners can take steps to protect public health since Gov. Abbott has explicitly approved of Bexar County’s measures. We, the citizens, of Guadalupe County must advocate for public health measures similar to that of Bexar County which requires anyone entering a public building or business to wear a face covering. That means contacting our commissioners and the county judge. You can call your county commissioner at 830-303-8857 then press the number of your precinct to be connected to your commissioner, Judge Kutscher can be reached at 830-303-8867.

The county should provide disposable face masks at all polling locations so that anyone unprepared can comply with face covering requirements and still exercise their right to vote. Since this is a runoff in a primary election, turnout is likely to be relatively low so the county will have the opportunity to develop and test procedures prior to the November general election when the risk of exposure will surely be even greater due to the much higher turnout.

If proper precautions are taken by the county and all voters we can vote safely.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - June 24, 2020

Texas Unprepared

Two weeks after Governor Abbott issued his executive order re-opening the state for business statewide the rate of new COVID-19 cases continues to accelerate, topping 47,000 over the weekend according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. Thursday set a record for new cases in a single day at 1448 then Saturday that record was shattered with 1801 new cases. Deaths in Texas due to COVID-19 now number over 1300 and climbing as well due to Thursday’s record high 58 deaths. Remember that COVID-19 symptoms often takes two weeks to present and patients often spend a week or more in intensive care units before succumbing to the disease so there’s a strong probability that deaths due to infections contracted since re-opening aren’t included in the latest statistics and won’t show up until the end of this week or early next week.

While there have been 645,000 tests over the last 30 days the daily number of tests hasn’t increased at near the rate of infection or death. Assuming that no one has been tested twice that means just over 2% of the 29.9 million Texans has even been tested. Unlike states that are aggressively investigating COVID-19 cases by following up with people who have tested positive one on one then contacting anyone who may have come into contact with the infected person Texas is passively collecting that information by offering to accept that information on a state website. Some cities and counties such as San Antonio are operating their own aggressive contact tracing programs in an effort to stem the tide of infection and death.

So many Texans are not only unemployed, they’re also not receiving the unemployment checks they’re due. My brother is on furlough and though he applied for unemployment as soon as he was eligible it’s been a month and he still hasn’t received the money he is due nor has he been able to contact anyone at the Texas Workforce Commission about the delay as their phone number just plays a recording saying that they aren’t answering phones so they can concentrate on processing claims. Fortunately he’s not one of the 40% of Americans who lives paycheck to paycheck. Food banks all over the state have run short of food due to the overwhelming demand for their services and aside from assistance by a few private donors little is being done to alleviate the situation.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s solution is to just let people die rather than providing timely relief while protecting the lives of Texas residents.

Clearly Texas wasn’t prepared to re-open for business as usual and the employees of Texas businesses are the ones most likely to suffer for it. With the state not providing timely payment of unemployment claims and food banks running dry many Texans are going hungry. Gov. Abbott re-opening the state for business just increases the risks to workers who face a choice between not returning to work in order to protect their health thereby making themselves ineligible for unemployment benefits whenever the state gets around to paying and putting themselves at risk of not only contracting COVID-19 from someone they come in contact with at work and then spreading it to their families.

It appears that President Trump the only people whose opinion matters to Gov. Abbott and Lt. Gov. Patrick are their wealthy campaign donors who are only interested in restoring cash flow to their businesses. Remember that in November when it’s time to vote, send them a message by voting for Democrats in the state legislature races.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - May 20, 2020

Business or Death

As of Sunday there have been 40,565 deaths from COVID-19 in the United States and 477 in Texas. Even though Texas hasn’t suffered near the rate of infection or death that New York or New Jersey have that doesn’t mean it can’t still happen. What the media and the bumbling fool in the White House fail to get across is that the suffering isn’t just death.  COVID-19 also results in 25% pulmonary function deficit that takes 15-20 years to heal, some sort of coagulopathy (excessive bleeding due to a failure to clot) present in ⅓ of patients (long term implications not clear), neurological deficits (it may not be only smell and taste that are affected). Joint inflammations (now being investigated), and liver damage—none of these things are trivial.

We know that kids are infected. It seems relatively benign. Do they have any alterations in their neurobehavioral development? Growth? The comparison is oft made to the flu. The flu is not neurotoxic, and it isn't hepatoxic either. And while there are some pulmonary consequences, they're pretty rare.

Republicans and Libertarians are complaining about the cost to the economy of keeping businesses closed. I don’t hear anyone asking about the costs to the economy from the deaths and long term health damage of large portions of their employees and customers?

The squatter in the White House is amping up his rhetoric about allowing businesses opening their doors while failing to take the steps necessary to prevent a second wave of infections. He’s encouraging armed protesters to hold rallies at state capitol buildings all across the country, there was one in Austin too. Not only are the guns carried by these yahoos dangerous and unnecessary the protestors are out there screaming without masks so they’re potentially infecting one another.

Gov. Abbott is talking about re-opening businesses in Texas in a couple of weeks and while the rate of infection and death has been 35 times lower than New York there is no evidence that the risk has passed. In fact public health experts say that there are a few things that must be done before the stay at home orders are lifted. First, testing for infection has to be much more widely available than it currently is so we know who is infected. Second, tracking down all those who have come into contact with the infected person over the prior two weeks and testing them has to be done. That isn’t as simple as it seems because then any of those found to be infected sets off another wave of contact tracing. This takes a lot of man power. Next, any found to be infected must be quarantined for a minimum of two weeks.

One of my sisters is a nurse in a rural hospital, she has tested positive for COVID-19 and is now in quarantine. She is well enough to stay at home now but that can change. Her health is in danger along with that of her family. In addition the hospital where she works is now understaffed putting further strain on the remaining medical staff at a time when number of patients with COVID-19 is rising.

Economists say the shutdown is costing the U.S. economy about $20 billion a day. Ramping up production of test kits and the ability to analyze the kits reportedly would cost $25 billion so in other words just a little more than one day of closure. If he wants to economy re-opened why isn’t the president taking steps to insure adequate test kit production and analysis capacity?

Published in the Seguin Gazette - April 20, 2020

Democracy in the COVID-19 Crisis

Some of my Libertarian acquaintances have expressed concerns about the government response to the COVID-19 crisis those concerns have been largely about federal funds being for economic stimulus. I see the Democratic Party led effort to provide for those who have lost income and jobs to be just the beginning and a need for more. The real threat I see is to our democracy has to do with steps local, state, and federal governments take or don’t take to preserve the public’s right to know, respond, and vote.

Cibolo’s city council has streamed and recorded video of all meetings including committees like Planning and Zoning. They’ve even held a council meeting completely online to protect everyone’s health while remaining transparent. Some cities aren’t as prepared to be transparent in the midst of the crisis, some are using the crisis as an excuse to avoid public awareness.

Our governor has accepted a delay in the primary runoffs previously scheduled for May 26 now moved to July 14 but we aren’t likely to really be out of the woods and encouraging hundreds of people to stand in lines on election day isn’t good public health practice. There’s a very good chance that it still won’t be safe in November when the general election is scheduled and yet it isn’t realistic to postpone that as both the president and vice-president are constitutionally required to leave office in January regardless of whether or not an election has been held.

Unlike Texas, Wisconsin is full steam ahead for a primary election next Tuesday because of Republican resistance to taking action. On Friday Governor Tony Evers, a Democrat, called a special session of the Republican-led state legislature. He summoned lawmakers from the Republican-led chambers to consider legislation to move the primary to mid-May and mandate the use of mail-in absentee ballots for all voters save the disabled, for whom polling stations would remain open exclusively.

Texas should do what many other states have already done and allow every Texan to vote by mail. Current state law provides for voting by mail if the person is 65 or older, disabled, or out of the county during the early voting period as well as election day. All the state legislature has to do is eliminate the qualifications and allow everyone to vote by mail and we can keep our democracy while keeping everyone healthy. Of course that would require the governor to take action, so far he’s shown no interest in doing so.

Of course President Trump isn’t real keen on no excuses vote by mail, he told a Fox News interviewer “that if you ever agreed to it you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.” Trump is not the only Republican admitting that suppressing voters is good for Republicans but he is the most noticeable one. Georgia state House Speaker David Ralston (R) came out against efforts to allow all voters to vote by mail, saying the move could be “devastating” for Republican candidates.

Democracy is hard, it should be about the contest of ideas not voting rights.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - April 8, 2020

Why Don't Conservatives Take COVID-19 Seriously?

I’m amazed by the contradictions inherent in people’s reactions to threats. I have trouble understanding how conservatives don’t accept climate change as an existential threat but I know that obfuscation by fossil fuel companies and think tanks and politicians funded by them plays a role. The conservative response to COVID-19 though is just hard for me to explain. Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was quoted last weekend projecting 100,000 to 200,000 deaths from COVID 19. Most of those deaths will likely be in those older than 60, Trump’s base so you’d think he and they would take it really seriously.

Republican governors, such as Tate Reeves in Mississippi, have overridden local mayors who had issued stay at home orders put in place to protect their citizens. Some evangelical pastors, like Rev. Tony Spell in Louisiana, are violating local government orders banning large gatherings leading to outbreaks in their flocks. Jerry Falwell, Jr’s Liberty University welcomed its students back from Spring Break, unlike many public schools, only to find several students infected.

Governor Abbott talks out of both sides of his mouth saying that Texas is taking necessary steps to prepare but failing to issue statewide stay at home orders like governors in states that really are taking action with statewide stay at home orders. This weekend he announced  that “the number of Texans hospitalized with COVID-19 is less than 2% of the available hospital bed capacity.” According to state health officials there were 2552 confirmed cases in Texas out of 25,483 tested so Abbott claimed 90% tested negative. That’s nice except that there are over 29 million people in Texas so that means less than one tenth of one percent have even been tested. Let’s not forget that even if you’ve been tested and found to be virus free that doesn’t mean you can’t contract the illness a week or a month later. In addition 37 new cases were found last weekend in Bexar County alone. There’s not nearly enough testing going on in Texas to actually know how we’re doing. On the positive side Abbott did call up three National Guard units to assist with drive through testing and expansion of hospital bed capacity.

Of course you won’t be surprised to learn that the National Rifle Association’s response to the pandemic is to warn that everyone should buy a gun. They’re not suggesting doing so will reduce the spread of the virus, they’re proposition is that the virus will cause a breakdown in society like the Zombie Apocalypse or the Mad Max scenario.

All this and Trump’s latest conspiracy theory is his response to demands from doctors and nurses that more masks and eye protection be made available in which he claims that those same medical professionals who are doing all they can to protect us and care for our ill family and friends just want to steal the masks and eye protection.

It’s beyond me how people such as Trump, Abbott, and Reeves are selected by voters to lead us. November 3^rd can’t come soon enough.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - April 1, 2020

Republicans Fail Again

It isn’t just that I disagree on policy that makes me angry with Republicans it’s that they consistently fail and Democrats have to clean it up then get blamed for spending what it takes to fix the problem. Once again we have Republicans leading the nation and again we seeing an abject failure to provide competent leadership in a crisis. Trump and his brown nosing enablers in the legislature take the COVID-19 virus seriously at the outset and still haven’t taken the necessary steps to put industry to work on providing the basics needed to treat the soon to be deathly ill thousands of Americans.

Italy which had its first cases January 31, three weeks later there were 76 confirmed cases. As of Sunday there were over 59,000 cases and 5,471 dead. The death rate is high because the Italians don’t have enough critical care beds and ventilators necessary to treat the massive number of sick people. The doctors there are being forced to decide who gets treated based on both likelihood of recovery and length of potential life left to live so older/sicker patients are only receiving minimal treatment to relieve pain because there simply aren’t enough resources to go around.

The United States had its first confirmed case of COVID-19 January 21, so far there are more than 32,000 confirmed cases and 416 deaths. Given what we’re seeing in Italy you’d think Trump would have used his authority to demand that U.S. industry ramp up production of materials necessary to treat Americans quickly. For weeks he said that governors should handle it and the White House wasn’t a shipping business. Just a week ago he finally got around to invoking his powers on the Defense Production Act of 1950 which authorizes a President to prioritize materials for national defense and demand increased production including providing incentives to build more capacity. All the while or doctors and nurses have been trying to make due with shortages of protective gear that is necessary to keep them safe while treating severely ill patients. It’s typical Republican day late and dollar short behavior.

On the economic side Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell is more worried that his campaign donors in the airline and hotel industries will suffer profit shortfalls than he is about skyrocketing unemployment figures for working stiffs like you and me. Many Americans are suddenly worrying whether or not they will have enough money to pay the rent or mortgage with enough left over to cover groceries. McConnell’s proposal bails out big business who already got big tax breaks last year 90% of which was used to buy back their own stock to raise share prices which triggered bonuses for executives and leaves the rest of us to sink or swim on our own. Fortunately Senate Democrats said that bill is a non-starter and are demanding that individuals get government support and industry can borrow money and the super-cheap rates currently available from banks.

While one of the Democratic sponsored bills Trump has signed requires that all Americans be able to get tested at no charge that doesn’t help with paying for treatment if you’re one of the 5 million Texans without health insurance and you require hospitalization for COVID-19. Texas has twice the national average of uninsured and the main reason is our Republican Governor and state legislature refuse to expand Medicaid.

If Americans are smart, nine months from now Joe Biden will take office and begin steering in the right direction. Of course Republicans will then complain about the cost and the national debt.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - March 25, 2020

COVID 19 Republican Failure

In 2019 a petulant Donald Trump declared a national emergency when Congress wouldn’t give him his ridiculous border wall. After weeks of claiming “everything will be fine” the toddler in chief finally  declared a national emergency after COVID-19, aka coronavirus, has spread throughout the country.

China has taken draconian measures in some areas which have drastically reduced infection rates after the initial rapid spread of the disease. Italy has failed to take adequate measures and both the infection rates and death rates are soaring upward. The Italian health care system is overwhelmed in many areas and doctors are making hard decisions about who to treat due to lack of sufficient resources to treat all. They are only providing palliative care to the very old on the grounds that they only have a short time left to live anyway as well as those in poor health to start with as those resources are better used to treat younger, healthier patients who have both a better chance of survival and more to lose.

Unfortunately so far the United States is handling the situation about as poorly as Italy and we may suffer similarly for it.

On Friday the Democratic led House passed H.R. 6201-Families First Coronavirus Response Act which would provide free access to tests for the virus, including for those without health insurance. It would also give workers affected by the virus paid family and sick leave, boost unemployment benefits, strengthen government food programs for children, older people and those with low incomes and help states meet expenses for Medicaid, the government insurance program for the poor. More than a quarter of Texas Republicans in the House voted against the bill, they are Brian Babin, Michael Cloud, Louie Gohmert, Lance Gooden, Chip Roy, and Randy Weber.

In the Senate even knowing that passage of the bill was imminent Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell failed to recognize the seriousness of the emergency last Friday and chose to shut down for the scheduled recess and won’t return until Thursday. The excuse is that they’ll be back in a week and will vote on the bill then when the situation has clarified. The Senate’s failure to act will delay relief and exacerbate suffering needlessly.

While the pandemic has spread to 46 states and Washington D.C. the Trump White House asked for funding cuts to the Centers for Disease Control budget. Texas is particularly vulnerable to the consequences of the pandemic due to all the rural hospital closures suffered over the last decade as Republicans have slashed budgets for health care. Closures over the last decade have primarily been driven by $50 million a year in Medicare cuts to Texas rural hospitals starting in 2013 as well as a $80+ million a year underpayment by Texas Medicaid which is controlled by our Republican controlled state legislature and Governor.

Fortunately local officials like the superintendents of Seguin ISD and Schertz/Cibolol/Universal City ISD have taken action and closed all schools in their districts for at least this week. We need the Trump administration to take strong, swift measures like our local officials are doing.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - March 18, 2020