Written by Elizabeth Moon.

As of today COVID-19 deaths in the United States exceeded a third of a million, at 334,000.  I follow the Johns Hopkins site, because it reaches down to county level with more information than most, and it gives the cases in both absolute case numbers, and numbers per 100,000, which allows comparison between counties with fewer than 100,000 population and the ones much more populous.   I always look at my home county (Hidalgo) because…well…it was home.  I was born in the county hospital in Edinburg and grew up in McAllen, before heading off to Houston for college, then the D.C. area for the Marines, and then back to Texas in Austin, San Antonio, and McAllen (again, yes) before landing where we are now.

So here’s what COVID-19 looks like in my home part of the state…Corpus to Laredo and points south.   I’ll start at Laredo and work down the Rio Grande to Brownsville then start on the second tier counties, and so on.   And I’ll point out an anomaly that I don’t recall seeing before today.  Today Texas’ overall case fatality rate is 1.59

Webb (Laredo) *  Case fatality rate 1.72   Poverty rate 25.67% 525 staffed hospital beds, 65 ICU beds.

Zapata    Case fatality rate 0.99   Poverty rate 31.5%    0 staffed hospital beds or ICU beds

Starr *   Case fatality rate 3.36   Poverty rate 33%  48 staffed hospital beds, 8 ICU beds

Hidalgo*    Case fatality rate 4.38  Poverty rate 30%  1185 staffed beds, 260 ICU beds

Cameron*   Case fatality rate 4.03  Poverty rate 27.78%  1177 staffed hospital beds, 105 ICU beds

Willacy  (north of Cameron)  Case fatality rate 3.71  Poverty rate 29.2%  0 hospital or ICU beds

Kenedy  (north of Willacy)  Case fatality rate 9.52   Poverty rate 10.6%  0 hospital or ICU beds

Brooks (west of Willacy, north of Hidalgo)  Case fatality rate 4.62   Poverty rate 30.4%  0 hospital or ICU beds

Jim Hogg (west of Brooks, east of Zapata) Case fatality rate 3.24  Poverty rate 24.9%    0 hospital or ICU beds

Duval (east of Webb, north of Jim Hogg )  Case fatality rate 3.31  Poverty rate23.6%   0 hospital/ICU beds

Jim Wells* (east of Duval)  Case fatality rate 2.38  Poverty rate 20.76%,  72 staffed hospital beds, 8 ICU beds

Kleberg* (east of Jim Wells)  Case fatality rate  3.51  Poverty rate 23.2%  50 staffed beds, 10 ICU beds

Nueces* (Corpus Christi)  Case fatality rate 1.89   Poverty rate 16%  1024 staffed beds, 123 ICU beds

Counties with an * had the state’s stats listed: confirmed cases, fatalities, case-fatality rate.   Otherwise the state stats were zeroed out.   Some also had dubious results for “population aged 65+” with a zero there but the insurance graph showing % of those over 65 with the various kinds of medical insurance.

The county I live in now has a case-fatality rate of 0.97, much lower poverty level…it’s now got several bedroom communities of tech people working in or on this side of Austin.  Over 800 staffed beds, 157 ICU beds.  Most people have health insurance.

The disparity in medical outcomes is matched by the disparity in available medical care, food security, and housing security.   My home county’s case fatality rate of 4.38 means someone who contracts COVID there is more than four times as likely to die of it than someone where I live now.    Texas’ overall case-fatality rate is not an ideal–but the offhand acceptance of much higher death rates in some counties is unacceptable…they’re people, not “just elders and Hispanics.”    You know that already, but I’ve been stewing about this for months.

Elizabeth