Our COVID cases are skyrocketing.
A month ago, I wrote an article which pointed out how fast Texas’ COVID cases were growing. The article showed that in a matter of 13 days Texas went from the 12th highest cases to the 9th, and would soon have the 8th highest cases. While I knew that that we were soon going to pass Pennsylvania’s case count, I wasn’t expecting the state to report a one day increase of 2,504.
This time there was no announcement from the state blaming it on a cluster of tests at a meat packing plant. In fact, as of 9:00 pm, there has been no statement at all. Not from DSHS, not from Greg Abbott, radio silence.
A rapidly increasing pace.
The numbers here are from 5/11/20.
In the last month, our numbers have doubled. On top of that, our our hospitalizations have been reaching peak numbers every day for the last 3 days. (I’ll get to that)
Today is exactly 23 days since Abbott’s phase two, 16 days after Memorial Day, and 7 day’s since Abbott’s phase three.
If you already didn’t know that Greg Abbott only looks out for himself, this is the outcome of his eagerness to please his campaign donors. Now Texas is plunging into the abyss.
Here are the numbers today.
We went from 40,251 to 81,434 in a month.
But look at Pennsylvania. Although, Texas went up by 40,000 in a month, Pennsylvania only increased their case count by 20,000.
Pennsylvania was on lock down longer than us, plus their restrictions were much tighter.
And they have a cool map that shows each county color coded in a three-phase matrix.
What is the state reporting today?
Is reason for this discrepancy, (1,677), because DSHS has a one day delay from the counties’ reports? Likely.
So, how did I get to 8,800?
From the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which now has a total of 7,200 positive cases. You can see this on their new dashboard, here.
Last month we learned the state was under-reporting by 2,800. We also learned that DSHS was telling counties it was up to them whether or not they wanted to include the cases at the prison as part of their overall case count. Which led to more than half of the counties not reporting the cases, so the state didn’t report them either.
The whole thing is stupid, beyond belief.
Soon after that last article was published, the state told the counties that were reporting in their overall case count, they could still report them, but they couldn’t identify them separately.
In turn, it appears that counties have stopped reporting them all together, (the few that were), and are now relying on TDCJ to report them. This is evident, especially in more rural counties where the positive cases the TDCJ is reporting is higher than what the county is reporting.
The problem is, DSHS is still not including these in their overall positive COVID cases. That’s 7,200 DSHS is still not counting.
Some of these inmates are sent to hospitals that are also taking regular citizens, some are released, some are moved to other prisons, and all of them have contact with prison employees.
Greg Abbott Keeps Lying and DSHS Has Been Helping Him
We all know he got caught trying to inflate the testing numbers. When confronted about it, initially he lied, then when confronted again, he said they were going to be reported separately soon.
Texas’ DSHS did start reporting the antibodies tests in their total test count and separately.
But here is the true hilarity of it; Although, the DSHS in now using the antibodies test so they can give Abbott a bullshit number for his idiotic positivity rate… they weren’t including any antibody tests in our overall case count.
Here is disclaimer on the dashboard saying they started discluding them on May 19th.
Who trusts them now?
Greg Abbott, like Donald Trump, has lied to us, and lied to us, and lied again.
None of us would be shocked if Abbott came out tomorrow or later this week and talk about how great he was doing and how he’s working diligently to protect Texans from coronavirus. Then he, Dan Patrick, disgraced speaker of the house Dennis Bonnen, and anti-woman crusader John Hellerstedt will all give each other high-fives and slither to the back room for a cigar.
Or maybe he’ll just keep quiet hoping our attention will stay focused on the current uprising. But, Democrats know how to walk and chew gum at the same time.
From the Texas Tribune:
COVID Cases Hospitalizations.
This is today, reported from the Texas DSHS.
They are also reporting that there are 13K hospital beds, 1,500 ICU beds, and 5,900 ventilators.
But as much as they’ve already lied, who knows if any of these numbers are real.
While you’re out there this week.
If you are attending a march, going to work, or on quarantine; start having the conversation with people you meet or know.
Are they registered to vote? Elections decide every thing in your life, your representation writes or votes for police reform, determines whether or not you get healthcare, and if your child is taught Creationism in school.
It’s not enough for us to simply just vote ourselves, the Republicans from our legislator to the White House have been screwing up royally for a long time. It is time to get them out.
In the last election, over 11 million Texans who were eligible to vote, did not vote. If they become voters, Democrats will take Texas. If Texas wins, America wins.
We all know a person or two that doesn’t vote. Now is the time to talk to them about the importance of it. If every Democrat could convince one non-voter how important voting was, we would win by a landslide.
Make sure you’re registered to vote!
Are you registered to vote? Not sure, find out HERE!
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