Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Perspectives: Governors In Texas, Arizona Need To Make Unpopular, But Protective Decisions About COVID
The Washington Post: The Pandemic Is Not Under Control In The U.S. Just Look At Texas.
The Sun Belt seemed immune this spring as the coronavirus pandemic ravaged the Northeast. The Republican governors of Texas, Arizona and Florida began to let businesses reopen in early May. Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas visited the White House for a thumbs-up from President Trump on May 7. “Texas is opening up, and a lot of places are opening up. And we want to do it, and I am not even sure that we have a choice,” the president said. “You know . . . this country can’t stay closed and locked down for years.” On Thursday, Mr. Abbott paused the reopening, and none too soon. The Sun Belt that opened in May is being convulsed by a surge of infections and hospitalizations. Texas had an average of 1,043 new cases a day when Mr. Abbott visited the White House; on Wednesday, Texas posted its worst day so far for new cases, with 5,551. (6/25)
Arizona Republic: Gov. Doug Ducey Holds A 42-minute News Conference As COVID-19 Rages To Announce ... Nothing
Well, that was both alarming and slightly embarrassing. Gov. Doug Ducey has finally figured out that Arizona is in deep trouble. “COVID-19 is widespread in Arizona …” he said on Thursday. “It’s growing and it’s growing fast across all age groups and demographics.” “The rate of the spread of this virus is unacceptable,” he said, “and it’s time for us to step up our actions and our personal responsibilities.” “This virus,” he said, “is everywhere.” As opposed to, say, Tuesday when … it wasn’t? (Laurie Roberts, 6/25)
Dallas Morning News: Gov. Greg Abbott Needs To Show More Leadership To Slow The Dangerous Spike Of COVID-19
The time has passed for Gov. Greg Abbott to simply hope that Texans will voluntarily socially distance and wear masks. Coronavirus infections exploded after Memorial Day when too many of us broke those common sense health safety measures. July 4th could be a statewide catastrophe if we don’t move aggressively now to reduce the spread. Like Abbott, we were hopeful that a careful, staged reopening could balance the need to revive business with protecting us from a second surge in coronavirus cases. A spike in infections following widespread failure by individuals to adhere to basic safe practices of masking and social distancing have demonstrated we came up short as a state. (6/26)
The Houston Chronicle: Hospitals Are At Capacity. It’s Time To Act, Gov. Abbott
After weeks of touting “abundant hospital capacity” as the primary data-driven rationale for reopening Texas, it is time for Gov. Greg Abbott to take immediate action. There is no time to wait a few weeks to see how things play out, as he suggested on Wednesday.News that the Texas Medical Center, the world’s largest medical complex, is at 98 percent of normal capacity and could exceed its limits at any moment, should be a flashing red light for the governor to reverse the dangerous course he has been pursuing. To be clear, Houston is not experiencing the death rates seen in the New York area at its peak, but the leading indicators point to a looming crisis. (6/25)
Dallas Morning News: Reopening The Economy Too Soon Will Squander The Work We’ve Done To Contain COVID-19
There is a lot of discussion about reopening the economy, and rightly so. For an economist, however, the argument that favors caution is straightforward. We have made considerable investments, at great expense, and with longer-run benefits in mind. We don’t want to squander those for uncertain short-term gains. Millions of people have filed for unemployment benefits in the past few months in the United States. Probably more than 15% of the labor force is currently unemployed. The International Monetary Fund predicts that U.S. gross domestic product will decrease at least 5.9% in 2020. We are in a deep recession, probably the most severe since the Great Depression. (Peter Debaere, 6/26)
Los Angeles Times: Greg Abbott Needs To Own His Role In Texas COVID-19 Outbreak
Texas is one of the worst-hit states in the country for COVID-19. On Tuesday, the state broke its record high of 5,000 new infections in a single day. But as we know, everything is bigger in Texas — the next day, the state bested itself by racking up 6,200 new infections. It’s a disaster that Gov. Greg Abbott needs to take full responsibility for. His decision to “temporarily pause” reopening as of Thursday morning, for instance, is meaningless. Texas is already in its last phase of reopening, and Abbott has no desire to reverse the fact that all businesses have been allowed to operate at 50% capacity since early June. (Katherine Hu, 6/25)
Bloomberg: Coronavirus In Texas: Covid-19 Gives Greg Abbott A Reality Check
The Texas Medical Center in Houston is the largest health care complex in the world, so vast it describes itself, accurately, as a “medical city.” About 106,000 people work there, traversing 50 million square feet of property. If TMC were a stand-alone business district, it would be the eighth largest in the U.S. TMC isn’t a mere business district, however. It’s a conglomeration of more than 50 medical institutions, all nonprofits, including 21 hospitals, eight academic and research centers, four medical schools, seven nursing schools, three public health organizations, two pharmacy schools and a dental school. It is home to the world’s largest children’s hospital and the world’s largest cancer hospital. It treats eight million patients annually. Covid-19 may soon overwhelm TMC. (Timothy L. O'Brien, 6/25)
The Wall Street Journal: A Wolf In Emergency Clothing
When Lamar Alexander ran for governor of Tennessee in 1978, his wife confronted him with a question: “Why?” Although there are 55 governors in the U.S. (one for each state and the five populated territories), they tend, as Mr. Alexander discovered, to be visible only as glorified greeters for visiting delegations, as lobbyists in Washington, or “leaping out of helicopters and pulling the cords on those loud guns at the National Guard camps.” That is, until the coronavirus. On March 13, President Trump declared the Covid-19 outbreak a national emergency under the terms of the 1976 National Emergencies Act. But when he claimed “total authority” to determine when emergency measures could be ramped down, he encountered fierce blowback from governors, who insisted Washington doesn’t have absolute power over the states. The day of the governors had arrived. (Allen C. Guelzo, 6/26)
The New York Times: America Didn’t Give Up On Covid-19. Republicans Did.
Earlier this year much of America went through hell as the nation struggled to deal with Covid-19. More than 120,000 Americans have now died; more than 20 million have lost their jobs. But it’s looking as if all those sacrifices were in vain. We never really got the coronavirus under control, and now infections, while they have fallen to a quite low level in the New York area, the pandemic’s original epicenter, are surging in much of the rest of the country. And the bad news isn’t just a result of more testing. In new hot spots like Arizona — where testing capacity is being overwhelmed — and Houston the fraction of tests coming up positive is soaring, which shows that the disease is spreading rapidly. It didn’t have to be this way. (Paul Krugman, 6/25)
