Governor Greg Abbott’s failures on the COVID pandemic have led to the unnecessary deaths of countless Texans and are risking the lives of thousands more. Now, Texans are begging the judicial system to save the children of Texas from the Governor’s deadly decisions.
Abbott has failed county officials, public school administrators, and other local leaders throughout the entire crisis, including issuing deadly mandates that outlaw them from taking reasonable measures to save lives.
Instead of providing leadership, proper guidance, and state resources to hold the line against the disease, Abbott abandoned every single Texan by decreeing an every-man-for-himself doctrine. In response, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins was the latest local leader to sue Abbott in order to save lives.
No other Governor in Texas history has knowingly made public health decisions that caused hundreds of thousands of Texans to get sick and tens of thousands of them to die. It’s hard to imagine any previous Governor forbidding public schools and local officials from requiring children and others to be vaccinated for polio, diphtheria, smallpox, or other deadly communicable diseases. But the current reality is that Greg Abbott’s decisions are going to kill innocent kids unless the public takes action.
“Who’s looking out for the children in the South? We are having this massive surge of COVID-19 across the South, like nothing we have ever seen. And we’ve never seen children’s hospital wards fill up with COVID before. We’ve never seen pediatric intensive care units get overwhelmed with COVID cases… That’s where somebody at some point has to draw the line and say “No, we’re not going to let our kids get sick and go into pediatric ICUs when we don’t have to.”
– Professor Peter Hotez MD PhD
Deadly decisions
All along the way, Abbott failed to rise to the occasion and properly protect Texans from the COVID-19 pandemic. His deadly decisions—refusing to commit to vaccinating more of the population and denying local communities the tools they need to ensure widespread safety—have put Texas in a worse position as the fourth wave of the crisis hits the state.
Dozens of Texas hospitals have no ICU beds left available, and many hospitals have been forced already to set up pop-up tents to handle the overflow of patients. “This surge is by far the fastest and most aggressive that we’ve seen,” said the health authority for Austin and Travis County.
Kids are more at risk.
Troubling reports of the new variants of the COVID virus show that children are no longer as immune to sickness. It’s no longer just the elderly and immunocompromised that must be considered at risk.
An 11-month-old baby girl had to be intubated and airlifted more than 150 miles from Houston to Temple because hospitals were full.
With school starting, the uncertainty and confusion caused by Abbott’s failures are worrying parents across the state. One Brenham mom speaking with the Texas Tribune recognized the risks with her children without any clear leadership. “They are going to contract it and bring it home and we are going to be potentially out of work,” she said.
Local leaders are trying to hold the line and save lives.
Local leaders like Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo are showing strong leadership by urging mask mandates to be implemented in schools — where many students are not yet able to take a vaccine. “It’s a moment of necessary civil disobedience. Children’s lives are literally at risk,” said Hidalgo.
Dallas State Representative John Turner is fighting back by questioning the legality of Governor Abbott’s mandates, arguing he lacks the authority to even execute the orders that are currently restricting local communities from coming together to protect themselves against the virus.
Abbott abandoned Texas for his own ambition.
Greg Abbott is seemingly willing to sacrifice anything on his way to his doomed presidential bid. The Governor’s ambition has blinded him to the needs of real Texans and his fear of GOP primary disapproval has caused him to make deadly decisions with catastrophic consequences. It’s time for Texans to ask: how many more souls must be lost because of the misguided political aspirations of one man?
