It will come as no surprise that Greg Abbott is now infected with Covid-19 and no one knows how many people he spread the disease to before the announcement today.  Just last night he appeared at a Collin County GOP fundraiser where hundreds of attendees  were maskless and refused to social distance.  Who knows how many knuckle dragging anti-vaxxers were in the room.

Another standing room only event in Collin County tonight.

Thank y’all for the enthusiastic reception.

Let's keep this energy up and send a message that Texas values are NOT up for grabs in 2022. pic.twitter.com/wlPZyrHpx3

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) August 17, 2021

This won’t be a wake up call, though, since Abbott is desperate to be re-elected so he can prepare for the presidential race in 2024.  He doesn’t care if Texans live or die…it’s all about staying in power.  No matter who has to die for him to do it.

On top of everything else we call him, we can now call him #superspreadergreg

Hospitalizations and deaths are rising at an alarming rate in Texas, but not fast enough for Abbott and Paxton, who have been losing in lower state courts to school districts and counties desperately trying to protect their citizens and students from Abbott’s death plan.  In true Trumpian fashion, Abbott has been sowing chaos all over the state by banning all safety protocols that only morons and religious nuts oppose.  The chaos has overrun the hospitals, and now threatens to overrun the courts.  Yesterday, Abbott was handed two losses in quick succession, one in Dallas and the other in San Antonio, and concerned that the courts might be daring to protect Texans, Abbott instructed indicted felon Ken Paxton to run to the 100% GOP controlled Supreme Court to stop local governments from doing the right thing.  Said court generally follows the party line, backing business and corrupt politicians rather than protecting Texans, but this one really counts.  This is the test – will the judicial system of Texas once again rule against common sense and the common good, or will they surprise us?  I’m not holding my breath.

I am a proud native Texan. I’m the product of Texas schools, from 1st grade in Cypress, TX to UNT and UH. In fact, for the totality of my life and the life of my children, we have been legally compelled by the state to attend a school or we face truancy charges. The law mandates that the state is responsible for ensuring every child in Texas is educated. I like that law – overall, it makes Texans smarter, better people, and fuels the economy so we can enjoy these beautiful skies and all the natural resources Texas has to offer.

Lately, I love my state less and less. I’m a mom. I’ve got a freshman in high school who is fully vaccinated against COVID as of today, and a 10 year old who is too young to be vaccinated. Next week, this kid will go back to school, wearing a mask, but the teachers around her will not be permitted to tell the other children that might be sick to wear a mask to protect her and her peers.

One of my closest friends is an ICU nurse administrator at my local hospital, so I happen to know that we have no COVID beds left in my city and that the Children’s ICU/COVID beds are full and not accepting transfers for trauma. I know that the patients in those beds are getting less care than usual because nurses are taking double their patient load – even patients requiring 1:1 care are getting 1:2 care. School has been out for months here, so the daily exposure to hundreds of children isn’t happening. But next week, it starts.

Despite the new data coming out about the delta variant of COVID and how contagious it is to people who are vaccinated, Governor Abbott has tied our hands behind our back. We give our kids a mask and send them out into the world knowing that, vaccinated or not, the new Delta variant will likely infect them if they are exposed. We sigh with relief that our older, vaccinated children will likely fight this variant off and hold our breath that our younger children do not become seriously ill. We could prevent this infection with smart public health policy, but our Governor needs to win a primary. He has mandated that our school district can not require vaccinations for COVID nor can they require mask-wearing. Not under any circumstances.

Our school cannot offer online learning for the children who are immunocompromised because they don’t have the funding – much of the funding in our wealthy district is taken and given to the rural districts that voted for this school funding system so they can build giant football palaces in the middle of the great plains. Children who can’t risk getting COVID will have to be withdrawn from school, and those parents will have to find some way to care for and educate them while also trying to work. If they do not educate the child, they will face jail time for truancy. Teachers who are high-risk or immunocompromised choose between their health and their career.

Texas moms and dads who are facing this reality right now feel powerless. We are like big mama bears with our hands tied behind our backs and just a snap away from being able to bite the man who has tied our hands up. Those of us that are not part of the vast right-wing conspiracy universe see this for what it is: lunacy. We are a Republic, not a libertarian Wild Wild West. It is my hope that the apathetic, non-voting working people and parents of Texas finally wake up to what is going on in our government and vote these guys out.

I don’t know if Beto O’Rourke can win the race, but I fear he is the only candidate who has the name recognition to do it state-wide. I call on him to risk his political future and run for Governor, knowing full well that another huge loss like this will likely end his political career. I think he cares about Texans and if he can walk back his “I’m going to take your guns” comment, he is the only candidate with the fundraising power to challenge Greg Abbott’s corruption campaign chest filled with millions from big donors.

Complete disregard for the health and safety of children has to be the line, doesn’t it? The line where we don’t sit back and take this political nonsense anymore?

Note:  COVID-19 vaccines have been shown to be safe and effective and protect recipients from contracting the virus or greatly reducing symptoms if they did.  Serious reactions to the vaccines are very low.  The risk of serious illness or death from the virus far outweighs the risk of serious negative reactions to the vaccine.  The vaccine is our only hope for coming out of the endless waves of infection as the virus mutates.

Yesterday, Kay Ivey, conservative Republican governor of Alabama, finally said it:

There’s not much that Ivey says that I agree with, but I do agree 100% with this.  She along with many other governors, public health officials and the millions of responsible vaccinated people are fed up with the idiocy and irresponsibility of other millions of Americans’ not doing their part to stop the pandemic that has killed 600,000 Americans and infected millions.

I’m certainly fed up and believe it’s long past time to start shaming people who cling to bullshit conspiracy theories, religious dogma, and just plain old garden variety stupidity in resisting receiving the vaccine which is safe, effective, easily obtainable and FREE.  For fuck’s sake, folks, we’re now well into the fourth wave of infection and death and almost ALL of those falling ill and dying are unvaccinated.  What else do you need to convince you to get the vaccine?

We all know who to blame for politicizing science, vilifying scientists, and fomenting all of the divisiveness and fear.  It ranges from right wing talking heads, governors, local and state representatives, national representatives, and religious nuts, ending up at the feet of Trump.  The anti-vaccine hysteria will always be with us, especially with liars like Joseph Mercola, an Osteopath and the largest individual purveyor of vaccine lies to sell his “natural” cures.  He is number one in the “Disinformation Dozen”, the 12 most prolific spreaders of lies about COVID-19 and the vaccines.  Their misinformation is cynical, immoral, and is getting people killed.  The fact that they are profiting from it is inexcusable.

It’s time for normal, responsible Americans to start calling out and shaming those who peddle or support the spread of bullshit and who refuse to be vaccinated.  We need to stop the soft-peddling of “vaccine hesitancy” because that hesitancy is based on lies, distortions, and outright falsehood and it’s simply got to stop.  If you know someone you do business with is anti-vax, stop doing business with them and tell them why.  I recently did that with my dentist when I discovered he’s anti-vax.  If you have a family member who refuses, tell them you won’t see them until they get vaccinated.  If nothing else has worked, maybe this will.  If not, you don’t need to be exposed to that kind of stupidity.   I know it’s hard, but it’s time.  We’re not coming out of this until we get to herd immunity, and worse, the virus will continue to mutate into more contagious and possible deadly strains as it propagates.

Societies who don’t look after one another die.  Our society is in danger of suffering years of infection, economic strife and death driven by anti-vaxxers who callously inflict their stupidity on everyone else.

The National Center for Health Studies just issued it’s life expectancy report for 2020.  Not surprisingly, life expectancy in the US fell in 2020 fueled by COVID-19 deaths.  The shocking thing is how much in fell, by 1.5 years from 2019, from 78.8 to 77.3 years.  75% of those deaths were directly attributable to COVID-19.  This is the largest single year drop in US life expectancy since WWII. Trump’s incompetence, repeated all over the country by Trump Mini Me governors, caused millions of unnecessary infections and hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths.  The US has 4% of global population, but over 20% of COVID infections and deaths.

There’s simply no excuse for it, but the predictable result of the election of incompetents to high office.  Electing Donald Trump to the presidency was the single largest mistake made by voters in our entire history, and we have paid for it in treasure and deaths; even worse, we will continue to pay for this bumbling for generations to come.

The Washington Post has published a harrowing account by insiders of Trump’s case of Covid19 last October that was downplayed and lied about since the day he got sick.  As we all assumed, Trump was a LOT more ill than his staff or doctors lead us to believe, and he left for the hospital only when convinced how bad it would look if he waited so long that he would be taken on a gurney rather than walking to Marine One.  The story also confirms what we all assumed, that he lived ONLY because he was president.  WH doctors poured every known treatment to him as he got more ill, including the experimental therapy, the monoclonal antibody treatment.  And then HHS secretary Alex Azar pulled strings so Trump could jump the line in front of others.  At the time Trump received the treatment, only 10 people had received it.  That treatment, and the others performed at the same time (which was unprecedented) undoubtedly saved his sorry life.

Trump’s contempt for science, human life, and common sense is well known.  He forced aides to remove their masks in his presence, even while complaining to them that WH visitors would often get too close to him during events he insisted on holding.  Covid19 outbreaks became so common that then CDC director Robert Redfield labeled 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as “not safe”. Because of Trump’s defiant ignorance, untold numbers of staffers, their families, and visitors were exposed and fell ill.  Almost 900 Secret Service employees contracted the infection, HALF of them special agents who protected Trump, his family, and Pence.  God knows how many fell ill from exposure during Trump’s idiotic Hitleresque rallies.

The worst part of this story, though, was that the gargantuan effort to save Trump actually backfired.  Everyone had assumed that Trump having a near death experience would change him and he would reverse himself on the Coronavirus response, encouraging mitigation measures and preparing for the vaccine.  Doctors were trying to decide when they would start speaking their mind about the disease.  Staffers were preparing for a reversal of Trump idiocy.  They were all wrong.  Literally dead wrong.  Trump insisted on returning to the WH early, and when he did return he was still very ill, but even more defiant.  He insisted on climbing the stairs on the South Portico and barely made it.  He then turned to the cameras and yanked off his mask revealing his heavy orange stage makeup, turned and stalked back into the WH.  Nothing changed.

That was the day that hope died because Trump didn’t.  And that’s the truth.