NBC will air a documentary revealing how little citizens in our community care for one another. The trailer arrived after San Angelo's highest death month since the pandemic began. The City Health Department announced 65 deaths in September, eclipsing the 64 people dying from COVID-19 in January.
The video shows Local Health Authority Dr. James Vretis, who recently tried to reduce COVID spread in Tom Green County schools but was thrown under the yellow bus by state and local elected officials, as well as school district leaders.
I spoke with Shannon Medical Center health professionals who are disturbed by the aggressive nature of citizens unwilling to protect themselves, much less their neighbors.
When I moved to West Texas nearly thirty years ago I learned two things that made the Concho Valley great. One, people took care of one another when times got tough and two, not having an interstate highway kept out riff-raft.
San Angelo is on track for not one, but two interstate highways. COVID-19 blew a hole in neighbor caring for neighbor. Dr. Vretis can't do public health with a bitterly divided public and a minimally staffed health department that has been reduced to making phone calls and counting cases. The City gutted its health department over the last two decades and closed its clinics for over a year due to the pandemic.
San Angelo had 111 coronavirus deaths the last two months, 430 since the pandemic began. The U.S. passed 700,000 COVID deaths. This public health crisis revealed much about the fabric of our community and it is clearly torn.
Update 10-22-21: The documentary can be viewed here. It was odd to hear Health Director Sandra Villareal say "it is kind of hard when you can't really follow your pandemic plans."
Update 11-10-21: Interstate 14 is coming courtesy of a Blue administration.
"San Angelo and Tom Green County have a long history of advocacy for our area to be part of the national interstate highway system," said Steve Floyd, Tom Green County judge.
A report from the Texas Department of State Health Services examined data from Jan. 15 to Oct. 1 and found that unvaccinated people were much more likely to get infected and die of the coronavirus than those who got their shots. In all age groups, the state's unvaccinated were 40 times more likely to die than fully vaccinated people. The study also found that the unvaccinated in all age groups were 45 times more likely to have a coronavirus infection than fully vaccinated people. Republican leaders sharpened attacks on public health strategies throughout the pandemic.
Update 12-5-21: Rep. Drew Darby's latest abandonment of the health and safety of his constituents involved his opposition to federal vaccine mandates. Shannon Medical Center had to suspend its requirement for employees to be COVID-19 vaccinated as courts deal with the constitutionality of mandates. Tom Green County's highest COVID death toll occurred just months ago. Darby's House District shows education and health care as the biggest employer. A Texas education official recommended COVID vaccines be mandatory in schools, like other legally required vaccinations. Daby's former failure to citizens came in the February freeze. We could have used his fire then.
Update 12-31-21: After banning mask mandates and preventing businesses from requiring employees be vaccinated, the Omicron variant punched a hole in Governor Abbott's reliance on antibody treatment for at-risk Texans. Abbott blames the Biden administration which is like this Biblical passage. "You can see the speck in your friend's eye, but you don't notice the log in your own eye." Abbott did more to foster the spread of disease with his anti-public health stances.
Update 1-2-22: America's sad state of affairs in public health is reflected by:
"Hundreds of state and local health officials across the country have retired, resigned or been forced out in partisan rancor over the pandemic."
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