The Abbott of Death
The situation in the nation’s second-largest state is absolutely catastrophic:
More than 250,000 Texans have now been diagnosed with COVID-19, according to the latest numbers from the Department of State Health Services.
On Saturday, the state reported a record 10,351 new cases of the coronavirus, and the number of people reported to be hospitalized with COVID-19 reached 10,083, breaking the previous record of 10,002 set Friday.
The state also reported 99 new coronavirus deaths on Saturday — capping one of the deadliest weeks of the pandemic for the state. The highest number of COVID-19 deaths reported so far in one day in Texas was 105 on July 9.
In total, the state has reported 3,112 deaths as a result of the coronavirus.
It’s worth recalling that Greg Abbott literally forbade local governments from instituting mask ordinances when cases began to spike. He wasn’t just indifferent, he took proactive measures to ensure that as many people got sick and died as possible. He did at least retreat while DeSantis has plowed ahead, but it was way too late.
Dan pointed out today that Republicans are botching this massively even though their political self-interest and sound policy are perfectly aligned. A Republican Party that was motivated by pure venality would be a major improvement over the actually existing one, which is committed to many bad ideas it refuses to revisit even when they’re failing in ways that directly damage their political self-interest.
In related news, New York City had zero COVID deaths reported today. The Republican theory of COVID response is that Andrew Cuomo and Bill deBlasio acted brilliantly in March and are screwing things up now.