The state of Texas and the Corona Virus

It’s safe to assume that corona virus has been taking it’s toll on the planet for the past few months and with endless hours (which aren’t so endless when you are teaching yourself 4 different a-levels) in the UK’s lock down there is often time to ponder what else is going on in the world, like Texas in the USA.

The USA has 50 federal states, meaning they all have significant control over their individual state (apart from their nation wide laws that have been approved by congress and the president). Included in this control is the precautions taken around the corona virus outbreak, meaning each states’ response to the pandemic is different.

In Texas, like many other parts of the US issued a statewide stay at home mandate on April 2nd 2020 after many Texan’s did not adhere to the more localised stay at home order put forward by local officials. The order, similar to the UK, involved staying at home and only going out to do essential work or to go to the shops. In order to put across the message that people could leave their house in certain circumstances, the governor, Greg Abbot, hesitated with the naming of such an order as “shelter-at-home” or “stay-at-home” as it may lead residents to believe they can never leave their homes; thus informally referring to it in news broadcasts as “Essential services and activities only”. To enforce this mandate, the state has issued an up to $1,000 fine, jail time for up to 180 days or both, if conditions are not met, even though law enforcement had issued a statement claiming that they are focusing on issuing warnings and educating people instead. A further precaution Abbot is made is to postpone the May 26th primaries to July to reduce the spread of the virus.

Along with Texas and the stay at home orders issued, there has been a surprising amount of scandal too. One stems directly from the stay-at-home order as, unlike Washington state where there was a statewide ban on spiritual services, Abbot encourages churches to operate remotely but if necessary, members can meet face-to-face whilst following social distancing guidelines, thus specifically exemplifying every other religion in Texas; yes, that does only make up 2% of Texas’ religious distribution, but discriminatory nonetheless. In addition to this there has also been a hubbub of news regarding Bill Gravell, a Texas Judge who violated his own stay-at-home order by going to his grandson’s birthday party on April 7th , the same day he extended his order for the whole county to stay home until the end of April. Following this trend with my personal favourite, Texas Mayor Becky Ames was forced to apologise after violating her own stay at home order to go and get her nails done (of all things), claiming it was a “lapse of judgement”. She is now under investigation from the district attorney.

Over the past month, since the various stay-at-home orders were issued, American’s all over the US have been protesting against it, claiming it is tyranny and that all jobs are essential. In Texas particularly, people clumped in their masses with banners and placards, wishing to be a free America once again. With the right wing media and US president Donald Trump supporting the protests, and some Texas businesses opening out of defiance, just one month later, lock down restrictions are being relaxed in Texas, as well as a few other US states. In Texas, most public places, including parks and restaurants, re-opened on May 5th, with cosmetic shops, such as barbers and (if you’d believe it or not) tanning salons (necessary activity? i think not) following on the 8th and Gyms, offices and manufactures coming soon on the 18th.

All of this early relaxation has already had detrimental consequences as just the day after the first phase was introduced, Texas recorded 1,033 corona virus cases – the highest daily number so far, and there are fears that the reopening Texas could cause another huge wave of corona virus cases, and with it, lots more deaths.

Compared to the UK’s Clap for the NHS and almost the whole country abiding by Johnson’s stay-at-home order, such rebellions are unheard of. The extremities go as far as three numpties from Slough climbing up Old Harry Rocks and requiring 45 emergency service workers to rescue them. But despite these Covidiots (thank you The Sun, I will be using this term frequently from now on) the UK has a much lower death toll then the US as a whole and the government aims to keep it low.

But who knows I may just choose a tan over my life.

(No, I won’t)