Texas Gov. Abbott is reaching out of state to find Covid help

[AuCivilEng1 10,995]

No this isn’t a joke. No this isn’t an Onion article. This is the reality we are living in ladies and gents! He wants to pull healthcare officials to his Covid cesspool ,where he has created an anti mask/anti vaccine environment, so they can assist with taming the Frankenstein’s monster that he created. Wow!

 

[AUDub 11,131]

 

[TexasAtxAub 14]

I don't post here anymore, in fact even forgot my password, still read though here and there. Was curious about this though.

2 hours ago, AuCivilEng1 said:

anti vaccine environment

Is there a reason you left out the rest of the information in Abbott's statement? He isn't anti-vaccine, he is mandate though.

Quote

The Governor is also directing TDEM and DSHS to increase vaccination availability across the state and encourages all Texans to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Texans can visit covidvaccine.texas.gov to find a provider near them. Texans can also utilize TDEM's State Mobile Vaccine Program by calling 844-90-TEXAS and selecting Option 3 to schedule a mobile vaccine clinic to vaccinate groups of of friends, families, employees, volunteers, and more. Homebound Texans can also call 844-90-TEXAS and choose Option 1 to request a mobile vaccine team to come to their home.

"The State of Texas is taking action to combat the recent rise in COVID-19 cases and ensure that our hospitals and communities have the resources and support they need to mitigate the virus," said Governor Abbott. "Texans can help bolster our efforts by getting vaccinated against COVID-19. The COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective, and it is our best defense against this virus. Texans can visit covidvaccine.texas.gov to find a COVID-19 vaccine provider near them."

https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-takes-action-to-mitigate-rise-in-covid-19-cases-in-texas

Not a big Abbott fan, didn't vote for Trump, didn't vote for Biden either. Abbott is correct though that it is a "time for personal responsibility". Or maybe he is like me and has Clapton tickets and will change his mind post concert (like Lightfoot and Lollapalooza lol).

I work ER in a healthcare facility in Travis county, a county that voted something like 80% democratic in the election. I see who is coming in wanting testing, who is getting positives, and who despite that being their reason for coming won't keep a mask on, and start trouble with staff and other patients. I also know the make up of my ICU/TCU/STICU beds. Several car accidents, cardiac numbers are back to norm, and like many cities we are seeing a significant increase in our GSW's and stabbings (I see what every person that enters that ER is there for). I had to get swabbed last week cause of an incident with a patient and their mask (and they were not Trump anti vacc/mask). Fortunately it was the resp/sinus infection that's been sweeping through Austin and not a breakthrough.

If you want to know why Texas is trying to import healthcare workers, it is because of pay. Many of the clinical staff (especially nurses) left for travel assignments in other states cause of the pay. We've been working short staffed across the board the entire year. In fact the organization I currently work for (for a very short time longer,I got a new gig myself) just now upped their nursing pay. This is hitting nursing, techs, administration... everything across the board. You got front line healthcare workers getting a joke bonus and 35 cent raises while HEB was giving $3.00 plus permanent raises along with a significant bonus. Their stating pay also increased. Hell the P-Terry's by me (chicken/hamburger stand) is starting with no experience at $18 an hour. That is more than the median pay for many lab/medical techs. I took 2 weeks from an individual going to Costco today. Better hours, they are staffed, will time and a half them every Sunday, and is paying 8 dollars an hour more.

Then in Austin who are you gonna get to enforce all those mandates? They are losing officers left and right. Never stated here before but my GF is one of them, finished the post grad work she was doing and got out. Really glad about that, even more so after seeing the weekend event in Chicago. Along with the officers they are losing they de-funded 3 cadet classes so they have no replacements. Their response time to level 1 events has increased by like 40%.

What I've learned in the past year plus is this, regardless of beliefs, political affiliation, whatever..... many people are still gonna do what they want to do in regards to COVID if it impacts their lifestyle. Like I said Austin, Tex.... liberal city..... like 80% plus democratic vote. 6th Street 2020, no vaccine available, social distance in effect, mask mandate in effect:

 

Ya'll be safe.

[CoffeeTiger 5,084]

8 hours ago, TexasAtxAub said:

 

If you want to know why Texas is trying to import healthcare workers, it is because of pay. Many of the clinical staff (especially nurses) left for travel assignments in other states cause of the pay. We've been working short staffed across the board the entire year. In fact the organization I currently work for (for a very short time longer,I got a new gig myself) just now upped their nursing pay. This is hitting nursing, techs, administration... everything across the board. You got front line healthcare workers getting a joke bonus and 35 cent raises while HEB was giving $3.00 plus permanent raises along with a significant bonus. Their stating pay also increased. Hell the P-Terry's by me (chicken/hamburger stand) is starting with no experience at $18 an hour. That is more than the median pay for many lab/medical techs. I took 2 weeks from an individual going to Costco today. Better hours, they are staffed, will time and a half them every Sunday, and is paying 8 dollars an hour more.

 

Hey, at least feel good that Health Insurance companies are seeing high, rising profits. American Healthcare working just as it was designed to. 

[TitanTiger 20,471]

If only there was a way to predict what fully opening up while preventing localities from implementing masking, vaccine requirements for businesses, and other mitigation measures would end up looking like.  

How could we possibly have known?  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[CoffeeTiger 5,084]

Abbot isn't just against vaccine mandates either, he's signed an executive order preventing schools and  government offices from requiring masks...an order that Dallas school district is trying to defy. 

It's a stupid game that Abbott is playing and all of Texas is paying the price for it.

Wont stop Red blooded Repubs from blaming all of it on migrants and brown people though. That's the catch all scapegoat for Conservatives when anything goes wrong in America. 

 

[TexasAtxAub 14]

5 hours ago, CoffeeTiger said:

Abbot isn't just against vaccine mandates either, he's signed an executive order preventing schools and  government offices from requiring masks...an order that Dallas school district is trying to defy. 

It's a stupid game that Abbott is playing and all of Texas is paying the price for it.

Wont stop Red blooded Repubs from blaming all of it on migrants and brown people though. That's the catch all scapegoat for Conservatives when anything goes wrong in America. 

 

And it wont stop Texas Dems from grabbing a case of Miller Light and ignoring recommendations/mandates or telling people to shelter in and not gather while they go to weddings in Cabo either. Yes, Abbott is anti-mandate across the board.

The biggest problem for Texas is it's vaccination rate that ranks 36th nationally. Which goes back to the OP statement that Abbott is anti-vaccination, which is not true. It even cut out the measures trying to encourage vaccinations.

Yes, many of your "no big govt" and rural conservatives are going to shift blames. When you look at Dallas, Bexar, Harris, and Travis you will see terrible vaccination rates in the African American and Hispanic areas with them shifting blames. My GF's father almost lost his life last year cause he wouldn't get vaccinated despite her pushing him, and he isn't a Republican and is one of those brown people. His decision had nothing to do with politics. She actually did vote Republican though.

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/03/unvaccinated-texas-demographics/

Over 99.5% of your Texas covid deaths are in the un-vaccinated since Feb. Texas Republicans and Democrats both need to do a better job in overcoming obstacles in the unvaccinated. Claiming its all migrants doesn't help, and that plane stunt didn't help in regard to vaccinations. Least Delta fears are driving people to get vaccinated.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/30/us-covid-vaccine-rates-delta-variant.html

For me, as I said people are gonna do what they want to in regards to their lifestyle. I wear my mask at work all day, I got vaccinated, and I wear my mask into businesses again.

 

[homersapien 11,353]

Clearly, we need another wall, only not so far south.

Edited August 11, 2021 by homersapien

[TexasAtxAub 14]

11 hours ago, homersapien said:

Clearly, we need another wall, only not so far south.

Where you gonna build the wall Homie lol.

Recent statistics:

Believe you are in NC right? Population 12 and up that have one dose at this time reported: 60%

https://covid19.ncdhhs.gov/dashboard/vaccinations

State of Virginia: Population 12 and up receiving 1 dose at this time reported: 62%

https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/coronavirus/covid-19-vaccine-summary/

State of Texas, land of the anti-vaccination as reported at this time 12 and up receiving 1 dose: 64%

I got my sisters opinion today as she is a govt employee with 3 kids in K-12. She is like me, mandate or no mandate doesn't matter. We know what to do and she has consistently been teaching her children the same. Accountability for our own health. Her kids actually did better when she decided to just keep them home, cause they complained about constant interruptions and time spent trying to get other kids to keep their masks on or worn properly.

Anyway, be safe man. News stories out of NC (sorry if that isn't wear you live, some reason I think it is) seems like you might not be very far behind Texas in regards to spread and bed issues. Its possible my old organization might be in that area also.

[TexasAtxAub 14]

Texas numbers, my bad:

https://tabexternal.dshs.texas.gov/t/THD/views/COVID-19VaccineinTexasDashboard/Summary?%3Aorigin=card_share_link&%3Aembed=y&%3AisGuestRedirectFromVizportal=y

Can't edit with this post count it seems, and can't decide if I want to get my old account back.

[bigbird 60,368]

Maybe if all of the Texas nurses didn't run off to NYC, California, Florida, Atlanta, or Chicago when they were asking for help.

[homersapien 11,353]

 

Greg Abbott Surrenders to the Coronavirus

The Texas governor’s warped priorities are allowing an extremist minority to worsen the pandemic.

By Adam Serwer

Updated at 10 a.m. ET on August 12, 2021.

 

A year and a half into the pandemic, Texas is running out of hospital beds.

The Texas Tribune reported on Tuesday that nearly 10,000 COVID-19 patients have been hospitalized, and that the state's intensive-care units are being overwhelmed. Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued an executive order asking hospitals to delay elective procedures and authorizing local facilities to seek out-of-state medical staff to help with the coronavirus surge, which is approaching levels not seen since winter. Despite the desperate situation, Texas’s case rate is not even the worst in the nation—Louisiana and Florida have more cases per capita.

The coronavirus pandemic should have been over by now, but instead the U.S. is facing what some medical experts have described as a “pandemic of the unvaccinated.” Last week, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff held a press conference urging residents to get vaccinated, offering a dramatic chart showing that close to 90 percent of new infections are among the unvaccinated, who in turn make up 95 percent of hospitalizations. Out of the nearly 9,000 Texans who died of the coronavirus from February 8 to July 14, just 43 were known to be vaccinated. In other words, unvaccinated people constituted 99.5 percent of coronavirus deaths in Texas during that period.

Calling it a pandemic of the unvaccinated, however, may mislead some people into believing that the current wave is merely a problem for those who haven’t gotten the shots. The surge is straining the state’s hospital capacity, forcing Texans to delay medical procedures. Children under 12 remain unvaccinated, and some adolescents and adults who have gotten the shot, including those who are immunocompromised, remain vulnerable to infection and serious illness because of the Delta variant. The longer so many people go unvaccinated, the more likely the evolution of even-more-deadly strains of the disease becomes. And, put simply, you should care when the people around you are dying in droves of a preventable illness.

As my colleague Ed Yong has written, being unvaccinated and being anti-vaccination are not the same. Startlingly consistent statistics across states, no matter which party is governing, show that low-income people are more likely to be unvaccinated, particularly if they are Black or Latino, than their wealthier peers. There is no silver bullet for increasing vaccination rates—mandates will help, but community-based outreach efforts are also necessary, and employers must give workers sufficient time to get the vaccine and recover from potential short term side-effects without having that affect their employment. The U.S. appears to be compounding one of the original tragedies of the pandemic: The essential workers who kept society functioning as the nation was ravaged by a plague were more likely to be felled by the illness, and they are now less likely to access the vaccine that could save their lives. America has failed them twice.

For this reason, the coronavirus surge is not entirely attributable to conservative media’s irresponsible campaign against vaccines, which makes the campaign no less reprehensible. Taking a cue from the once and future king of the conservative movement, Donald Trump, right-wing media outlets such as Fox News have devoted hours and hours to programming that is, if not outright anti-vaccine, at the very least anti-pro-vaccine. The same outlets have portrayed other mitigation efforts, such as mask requirements, as a form of tyranny. Some Republicans, like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, have responsibly sought to counter this messaging, but they are the exception.

Although this misinformation is a real issue, and has driven a partisan divide in vaccination, not every unvaccinated person is being brainwashed by conservative media. The larger issue is that the conservative media’s devotion to undermining vaccination encourages Republican elected officials with political ambitions to make irresponsible public-health decisions, because they understand how media coverage shapes the attitudes of the GOP’s voters. Vaccine mandates for things such as school and air travel are supported by more than 60 percent of Texans, despite the state’s conservative lean. But Republican elected leaders fear the wrath of the GOP primary electorate more than they fear thousands of residents of their states dying of COVID-19.

Abbott and Texas Republican legislators have undermined virtually every effort to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. In June, Abbott signed legislation that would deny state contracts or licenses to businesses that require proof of vaccination. Last month, he issued an executive order banning cities and other jurisdictions from enacting mask and vaccination mandates, even though schools across the state already and rightfully require other vaccinations for students to enroll. “The new Executive Order emphasizes that the path forward relies on personal responsibility rather than government mandates,” Abbott proclaimed, while issuing a government mandate. Many Texas cities are in revolt, instituting their own mask mandates in defiance of Abbott’s directives and taking the governor to court.

Abbott did, however, direct state troopers to stop vehicles suspected of transporting undocumented immigrants, a reaction to the widespread conservative falsehood that immigrants are propelling the pandemic surge. The primary step Abbott has taken to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, in other words, is to encourage armed agents of the state to engage in racial profiling. You know, in the name of freedom.

These efforts are not justifiable on the principles conservatives claim to hold. They are not small-government measures, given that they represent intrusive state intervention. They do not respect local control, given that they bar cities and other jurisdictions from taking measures that their residents want them to take. And they are not deferential to the free market, given that they seek to use the state to punish businesses that engage in mitigation efforts. They are designed solely to appeal to the culture-war shibboleths of right-wing media, no matter how many Texans die as a result.

A pathetic irony is that Texas Republicans such as Senator Ted Cruz, who has proposed banning vaccine mandates on the federal level, formerly insisted that the seriousness of the pandemic was a liberal plot to harm Trump and would subside when he left office, as would liberal support for mitigation measures. But now Cruz, ever the craven apparatchik, the type of man who kissed the ring of someone who smeared his father and insulted his wife, is opposing the policies that would more quickly end the pandemic and make such measures unnecessary.

But liberals should not allow themselves to indulge in smugness here. The consequences of this madness will fall on liberal and conservative alike, and disproportionately on working-class Americans of all backgrounds. It is not simply the most conservative areas of Texas that are lagging in vaccinations; Black and Latino communities across the state also have lower-than-average vaccination rates. And even the voters who support Abbott’s approach deserve better than his disastrous anti-governance; their lives are also worth saving.

Perhaps, you might say, this is democracy in action. Texas after all is a red state, and so Abbott acting according to the preferences of the right wing of his party is simply him being responsible to the public. Even if we set aside Texas Republicans’ careful and long-standing efforts to engineer a more conservative electorate, though, the present situation illustrates something deeply dysfunctional about our democracy. Something is wrong when an extreme primary electorate has such a stranglehold on a state of 29 million people that a public official believes it is against his interest to take basic steps to keep his own constituents alive.

This story originally stated that 10,000 COVID-19 patients are in Texas ICUs; in fact, that is the total number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/08/texas-politics-are-dangerously-broken/619725/

 

 

[AuCivilEng1 10,995]

And now he’s covid positive.

[aubiefifty 16,709]

6 hours ago, AuCivilEng1 said:

And now he’s covid positive.

i just do not get how stupid some of these people are.

[AuCivilEng1 10,995]

7 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

i just do not get how stupid some of these people are.

Couldn’t have happened to a better person. 

[aubiefifty 16,709]

2 minutes ago, AuCivilEng1 said:

Couldn’t have happened to a better person. 

i weep for what we have become and the idiots we have running our country. ALL of them. they care about themselves and power. and we have somehow allowed it to happen. we need people who love this country more than themselves but i have pretty much given up that hope.

[AuCivilEng1 10,995]

Everything has become so politicized that people would rather die than admit that their fav politicians were wrong. In normal circumstances I’d say let ‘em choose their fate. But my toddler is at risk. New Zealand just went into a covid lockdown over one case. And how much do you want to bet that they’ll end up being better off for it?

[SLAG-91 1,483]

Australia and New Zealand have lost their gotdamned minds, Australia in particular. It's a complete disconnect from reality. The Onion or Babylon Bee couldn't come up with stuff stranger than what the Aussie lunatics-in-charge are doing.

Once a prison colony, and it appears to be a prison colony once again.

I am not at all surprised that some folks here gush over tyrannical control, though. I'll not ever understand the almost pathological desire to control and be controlled.

Abbott will likely be OK, as he was vaccinated. If the outcome is something else, I figure our resident "concerned moderates" and leftists (not liberals...not even in the same ballpark...actual liberals would be appalled at the incessant overreach) will loudly announce their approval. 

[auburn41 492]

8 hours ago, AuCivilEng1 said:

And now he’s covid positive.

Well, he has been vaccinated and is showing no symptoms.  This is from the NYTimes.  You can google it if you want to read the rest of it yourself.....

 

Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas tested positive for the coronavirus on Tuesday and is receiving an antibody treatment, though he has no symptoms, the governor’s office announced.

An ardent opponent of mask and vaccine mandates, Mr. Abbott, a Republican, has taken his opposition to such requirements all the way to the State Supreme Court. Mr. Abbott, who is fully vaccinated, will now be isolated in the Governor’s Mansion while receiving monoclonal antibody treatment, which can help patients who are at risk of getting very sick.

[AuCivilEng1 10,995]

1 hour ago, auburn41 said:

Well, he has been vaccinated and is showing no symptoms.  This is from the NYTimes.  You can google it if you want to read the rest of it yourself.....

 

Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas tested positive for the coronavirus on Tuesday and is receiving an antibody treatment, though he has no symptoms, the governor’s office announced.

An ardent opponent of mask and vaccine mandates, Mr. Abbott, a Republican, has taken his opposition to such requirements all the way to the State Supreme Court. Mr. Abbott, who is fully vaccinated, will now be isolated in the Governor’s Mansion while receiving monoclonal antibody treatment, which can help patients who are at risk of getting very sick.

I’m sure he will have the best available care. Meanwhile in his staremost hospitals are so overwhelmed and overcrowded in Texas that they are  their turning patients away. And Abbott is looking to other states for healthcare professionals. But hey, at least the government won’t make them wear masks.

Edited August 19, 2021 by AuCivilEng1

[TexasAtxAub 14]

Don't forget these people. Like I said.. people are gonna do what they want when it involves their lifestyle on both sides.

Quote

A resurgence in COVID cases didn’t stop Lauri Chavez from traveling to Austin from San Jose, California. She found out the Pride parade was postponed after she flew in and said she was disappointed.

“Let’s celebrate our gay pride. It’s our proud moment. So if we get infected or not that’s our own choice,” Chavez said.

She’s had COVID-19 once and is still not vaccinated, but to her, it should be everyone’s own decision whether or not to get it.

“How people say my body my choice, that’s what people say, so that’s how I feel,” she said.

While the City of Austin remains in Stage 5 risk-based guidelines, Melendez said masks will be encouraged at Highland Lounge.

“After going through COVID the first time we learned a lot of different ways to make sure that our patrons don’t feel attacked by having to wear masks.”

https://cbsaustin.com/newsletter-daily/large-crowds-turn-out-to-celebrate-pride-even-after-postponement-of-austin-pride

[TexasAtxAub 14]

1 hour ago, AuCivilEng1 said:

I’m sure he will have the best available care. Meanwhile in his most hospitals are so overwhelmed and overcrowded in Texas that they are  their turning patients away. And Abbott is looking to other states for healthcare professionals. But hey, at least the government won’t make them wear masks.

It's called diversion and it is based on level of care needs (they aren't being denied care, even the article uses it as a catchy headline then properly addresses). These are patients using EMS and are sent to other facilities. We actually had patients brought in from San Antonio/New Braunfals that were non-covid last week (foot/hand injuries, hyperglycemia, even sore throats.) You would be surprised what some people use an ambulance for. Seen people use an ambulance and walk out with prescription for over the counter allergy meds. Then get mad that the ambulance won't take them home lol.

But yes, space is an issue and there is diversion. The patients hold in the ER then the next day you see a large number of DC's and those patients are moved upstairs. I've now worked ED's at two facilities over the past 3 weeks and one was on diversion once (accepting all other days) and the other I have not seen go on diversion. I also saw one that could of opened 26 more beds in the ER, but didn't have the staff to cover it.

You can't just turn patients away though, it breaks EMTALA. Your getting diverted (in which case EMS has already screen/stabilized/triaged), or you're physically walking into an ER where again by law you will be triaged/stabilized/treated.

Here is the demographic make up of two of your largest hospitals in the state of Texas with extremely high diversion rates:

Quote

HARRIS HEALTH PATIENT DEMOGRAPHICS
Hispanic - 57.6%
African American - 24.3%
Caucasian - 10.3%
Asian and other - 7.8%

https://www.harrishealth.org/about-us-hh/who-we-are/Pages/statistics.aspx

https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/10/houston-coronavirus-emergency-rooms/

These unfortunately are populations that are not getting vaccinated and they are populations that from readings and personal experience mandates are not going to work on for many. In all seriousness, they will come in for Covid systems and won't wear their mask in the hospital. There are as many of them that won't act as there are the anti-mask/vac whites.

I guess you could force vaccination mandates and go into those areas (but we know how that will turn out). Far as mask mandate, you can do it but there will still be significant portions that will ignore it. Go back on lockdown? That has lead to riots in Germany, England, France, Australia, etc. I do think full shutdowns would result in riots now in the US.

And I agree it sucks. Dems/Rep both ****** it up and their followers will bully the other side about it. It should be a pure Public Health issue with people getting vaccinated and not being bitchy cause they have to wear a mask while getting milk.

[bigbird 60,368]

12 hours ago, AuCivilEng1 said:

Couldn’t have happened to a better person. 

Sound just like my mother-in-law, she said the same thing. It's not a good look.

[AuCivilEng1 10,995]

16 minutes ago, bigbird said:

Sound just like my mother-in-law, she said the same thing. It's not a good look.

Neither is openly advocating for no mask mandates when your state is being overrun with covid cases. When he fight the mandates, he sends the message that it’s not serious enough for people to be slightly uncomfortable. And I’m not saying it’s solely his fault. But it’s def not a good look. 

[bigbird 60,368]

10 minutes ago, AuCivilEng1 said:

Neither is openly advocating for no mask mandates when your state is being overrun with covid cases. When he fight the mandates, he sends the message that it’s not serious enough for people to be slightly uncomfortable. And I’m not saying it’s solely his fault. But it’s def not a good look. 

I support no mandate.  I still wear a mask in some cases/places. I'm vaccinated. Personal accountability, responsibility, and freedom to choose. All are removed with a mandate.