Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Texans Forced To Rethink Emergency Plans As Hanna Swamps Coast
The New York Times: Hurricane’s Choice For Texans: Shelter From The Virus Or The Storm
Bartt Howe’s boat was his refuge from the pandemic. Battling diabetes and H.I.V., he knew that catching the coronavirus as well could kill him, so he had been living alone on the docked boat for three months. Then Hurricane Hanna began to slam the Texas coast on Saturday, forcing Mr. Howe to trade one deadly menace for another: To avoid injury or death in the hurricane, he had to risk infection ashore. “I had managed to stay safe all this time, but the storm kicked me out of my boat,” he said with a hint of resignation. “Now here I am, back on land, on borrowed time.” (Sandoval, 7/26)
AP: Tropical Storm Hanna Drenches South Texas Amid Virus Crisis
A day after roaring ashore as a hurricane, Hanna lashed the Texas Gulf Coast on Sunday with high winds and drenching rains that destroyed boats, flooded streets and knocked out power across a region already reeling from a surge in coronavirus cases. Downgraded to a tropical storm, Hanna passed over the U.S.-Mexico border with winds near 50 mph (85 kph), the National Hurricane Center said. It unloaded more than 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain on parts of South Texas and northeastern Mexico. Border communities whose health care systems were already strained by COVID-19 cases — with some patients being airlifted to larger cities — found themselves under siege from the first hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic season. There were no immediate reports of any deaths on either side of the border. (Mone and Merchant, 7/26)
Also —
The New York Times: Coronavirus In Texas: ‘You Do The Right Things, And Still You Get It’
Elaine Roberts, a longtime bagger at a supermarket, tried to be so careful. She put on gloves and stopped riding the bus to work, instead relying on her father to drive her to keep their family safe. She wore masks — in space-themed fabrics stitched by her sister — as she stacked products on shelves, helped people to their cars and retrieved carts from the parking lot. But many of the customers at the Randalls store in a Houston suburb did not wear them, she noticed, even as coronavirus cases in the state began rising in early June. Gov. Greg Abbott, who had pushed to reopen businesses in Texas, was refusing to make masks mandatory and for weeks had blocked local officials from enforcing any mask requirements. The grocery store only posted signs asking shoppers to wear them. (Fink, 7/26)
