Texas has handled the pandemic poorly, and most of that is because of their governor, Greg Abbott. He is contemptible, vile, ignorant and MAGA. He lifted lockdown restrictions too early back in March, and he’s spent the past five months ordering people to stop wearing masks and to stop social distancing. When cities and local ordinances try to keep some restrictions in place, he’s actually sued to make people less safe. He’s also tried to assert that as governor, he can ban vaccine mandates. Which is… not how any of this works. Texas has one of the worst vaccination rates in the country, Texas’s hospitals are being overwhelmed with Covid patients and hardly anyone in the state is taking any of this seriously. And now Gov. Abbott has Covid. *muffled laughter*
Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas tested positive for the coronavirus on Tuesday, though he has no symptoms, the governor’s office announced. An ardent opponent of mask and vaccine mandates, Mr. Abbott has taken his opposition to such requirements all the way to the state Supreme Court. Mr. Abbott, who is fully vaccinated, will now be isolated in the Governor’s Mansion while receiving medical treatment.
The Governor’s office said: “Governor Greg Abbott today tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. The Governor has been testing daily, and today was the first positive test result. Governor Abbott is in constant communication with his staff, agency heads, and government officials to ensure that state government continues to operate smoothly and efficiently. The Governor will isolate in the Governor’s Mansion and continue to test daily. Governor Abbott is receiving Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody treatment.
“Governor Abbott is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, in good health, and currently experiencing no symptoms. Everyone that the Governor has been in close contact with today has been notified. Texas First Lady Cecilia Abbott tested negative.”
Vaccinations in Texas lag behind those of many other states, and coronavirus deaths are rising, though far more slowly than in prior waves, given that a majority of the state’s oldest and most vulnerable residents are now vaccinated. The state has averaged more than 14,700 new daily cases as of Monday, an increase of 53 percent from two weeks earlier, according to a New York Times database.
[From The NY Times & Gov. Abbott’s Office]
Who would have ever thought that the douchebag who tried to ban vaccine mandates AND masks AND social distancing protocols would end up getting Covid? Oh, right. And for a vaccinated guy who is trying to convince everyone that he’s A-OK, it’s a bit curious that he’s already taking Regeneron, huh. I bet the tens of thousands of new Covid patients in the strained hospitals would like to have access to that treatment too. What an absolute sh-tshow.
Oh and guess what? Gov. Abbott also got a third shot, a booster shot. Which is worrying because he still got Covid, but also politically damaging because he’s making it harder for Texans to get vaccinated.
According to NBC News, Republican Greg Abbott has told people he received a third booster dose of a COVID vaccine.
Abbott bans mask mandates and vaccine mandates for everyone else, but he'll reportedly protect himself with a booster dose. https://t.co/Gw0lQnG4H1
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 17, 2021
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
He got Covid but he has zero symptoms and will stay that way. Honestly, I am so beyond disgusted by this third shot thing from this guy. Are we getting more evil? By we I guess I mean Republicans. How would you write this satire? They are beyond satire.
I’m pretty sure 45 burst out of someone’s chest and infected the whole lot of them. My hope is that they get everything they want in the most Monkey’s Paw way possible.
Yes, that is a good wish Merricat.
I laughed out loud at your comment, and thank goodness for that, because when I really think about what is happening and the way the republican platform is basically subverting democracy and white supremacy, I am genuinely fearful for the future of this country
Manda, I feel that way every single day.
He gets special medicine, special treatment, and a special booster shot, AND he gets to be specially treated from his own special mansion where he is the only special patient by his own special doctor and medical team. Because he’s just that damn special and important.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Texans who listened to this guy (whose motto is apparently “do as I say, not as I do”) are getting covid each day, and hospitals are so overwhelmed with the dead and dying that there aren’t enough doctors and nurses to go around, so this very special jerk has to beg the surrounding areas to send *their* doctors and nurses into Texas. Into……Texas.
Texas. The state that withholds necessary emergency covid relief funding from public schools that dare to defy his “no masks allowed, no distancing allowed, no vaccines allowed” mandate. Because those schools, you know, actually care about the children in their schools and they don’t want to see 2nd graders get sick, infect each other, and then quite literally die just because this very special Governor thinks that no one should be forced to endure seeing a child with a piece of cloth over their nose. People should, however, be forced to endure watching as children face a constant barrage of highly contagious, deadly, debilitating disease assaulting their little unvaccinated bodies on the daily.
I know Amy, I understand. It’s horrifying because of the children. I don’t even have the right words, it’s something beyond horror.
In addition to banning masks in schools, he has also banned contact tracing. Of course his family and staff we notified of his positive test but the kids and teachers in Texas as on their own. He is a truly vile, vile person.
VERY well said, Amy Too.
I honestly can say, I just don’t get it. I just do NOT get *what* the republiTHUG end game is, killing off their red supporters. WHY are they so against this, against fighting off this virus?? Is it just they all bought up shares in this drug company in that February meeting they had in 2020, when we heard of many of them selling certain stocks and buying up others in advance of announcing the lockdown (like Rand Paul and his wife)? Most of us aren’t getting access to this drug, so I don’t know if it’s that. Is it doing a systematic “thinning of the herd”, ordered by some “dark cabal/dark money intelligentsia”??? Some other kind of Tom Clancy plot we just can’t figure out??
I just saw a tweet on someone I follow: it showed a MASSIVE crowd that was trying to shut down a TESTING site. https://twitter.com/Angry_Staffer/status/1427991137910919177
I truly just do NOT understand.
@(TheOG) The only explanation I can think of is Republicans have become a death cult.
Yup, he gets access to Regeneron for zero symptoms while ensuring students cannot be safe in schools. Disgusting.
God, this entire report is terrifying. Here in Australia we have states in various stages of lockdown, and Melbourne is under curfew, because despite mandated mask wearing, physical distancing, strong advice to get vaccinate and repeated lockdowns, infection rates have surged again, especially in my state. To learn of this basyard’s complete disregard of expert advice, he literally is sending people to their deaths. Not himself or his own family, just others and their families. Imagine what an asset this piece of fetid garbage would have been to a certain little Austrian dictator in the 1930-40s. I feel sick.
Yep, the Devil takes care of his minions
Thank you, your level of ire matches my own, and you have given me the great gift of not having to find a place of calm and put it into words, as you did.
Yeah, he’s special, alright.
The noticeable thing here is that he ran off to get the antibody cocktail as soon as he finished his announcement. He’s also being sued by disability groups to block the mask mandate ban. This pandemic has been so hard on the students. My older son went from being an honors student to barely graduating. My younger son who has special needs was in the hospital not once but TWICE this spring for suicidal ideation. He needs to be with his friends on campus, but the petri dish of COVID that Mr. Abbott is creating not only infuriates me as a voter but as a mother as well.
I DID NOT vote for these people. These Texas GOP are vile and totally corrupt. And I don’t feel guilty for not wishing him a speedy recovery. He can have some “hopes and prayers” from his a-hole donors and POS Attorney General. Ken Paxton is a complete piece of garbage.
@ Ursaline, as a Texas resident, I feel the same way you do. The amount of hatred I feel for Abbot and Paxton have been at defcon level 5 for the past two years!! I read the Texas Tribune everyday and though I am happy that there are responsible judges and school boards, I am unhappy at the treatment that Abbot and Paxton are going after all groups that are acting responsibly. The fact that Abbot is declaring those going against his irresponsible orders, as if they are killing people in the streets, all the while hurling vile and abusive statements publicly.
To top it off, Abbot has asked for Federal help to staff the hospitals due to his incompetence!!
I am so sick of that them both that we are all closely watching Beto to see if he entered the race for Governor. I miss the days of Ann Richards and Barbara Jordan. Please take me back there!! Yes, I am a boomer!!
I am so sorry!!
I miss Ann Richards so much! Our state government needs to go – Abbott, Paxton, Patrick. They are all scum!
What’s worse is he will probably have zero symptoms *because* he’s getting monoclonal antibodies. Those work best when you take them early, but most fully vaxxed people don’t get them because they are by definition supposed to be “low risk”. Abbot will in all likelihood skate through this because he’s getting rare, expensive treatment AND he’s fully vaccinated (plus the possible booster), but he will almost certainly turn around and be like: Texans are too tough for covid! Look at me, I survived it no sweat!
I am so afraid that going forward his message is going to be, “HEY, LOOK!!! Not even the democrat vaccine (completely skipping over the fact that scientists all over the world busted their collective asses for this vaccine, and it’s science, not politics) works against Covid, much less masks and social distancing! Carry on, Texas, it’s life as we knew it in 2019!!!!”
@Christine is correct about the messages being sent to the followers of these clowns. I work with quite a few and here is the basic cannon:
1. If you get it despite the vaccine well how dare we mandate vaccines whose effects we don’t understand
2. Why are we letting undocumented immigrants in and not vaccinating them if it’s really so important ( this one is big with the Fox News crowd)
3 This guy is a great advertisement for regeneron, (just asks Ron De Santis about his biggest donors)
4. It’s hard to breathe with a mask on ( and yet surgeons do it for hours on end but yes, YOU’RE special. )
5. I don’t want it to affect any future pregnancies ( please stop breeding. If this virus doesn’t kill you we still don’t need your DNA in circulation) .
6. They’re really not counting everyone/ telling the truth about the number of cases / co morbidities /testing because my friend who works at a hospital is there and told me so! ( and hey, how about pizza gate)
I want the kind of health care that government officials get.
That’s what a good friend of mine always says. And while I get the President and top people get specialized health care, why should Govs and below on the government totem pole get better healthcare than us?
It’s not only better, it’s free.
Good question @seraphina
And not only that, @Seraphina, why should Abbot receive this specialized care at all when he has been literally suing organizations for trying to be safer??
This asshat who is completely AGAINST vaccines is actually fukcing vaccinated!!! Do I need to say it louder for the people in the back, so morons stop listening to this idiot??
Here in Wisconsin, State Senator Andre Jacques, a Republican who has been very outspoken against any preventative measures against Covid, including mask mandates and vaccine requirements for both state workers and students in the UW system came down with what sounds like a bad case of Covid this week. He’s already in the hospital in the Green Bay area. It’s unclear whether he was vaccinated due to both his political and personal religious views (very conservative Catholic), despite being at high risk of getting it bad due to underlying health conditions (40 and very obese).
He was maskless last week at the state capitol building with other Republican colleagues, so who knows what others are also infected. Most Democrats were wearing masks and many staffers were also wearing masks as well, so their behavior was placing them at risk. Maybe it would be enough that they couldn’t show up to vote in person to block measures intended to stop the spread of Delta in our schools and communities.
“ And for a vaccinated guy who is trying to convince everyone that he’s A-OK, it’s a bit curious that he’s already taking Regeneron, huh.”
Exactly! If he has no symptoms then why is he on Regeneron!?
I read somewhere else that it’s probably because of his paralysis. He’s at a higher risk of clots, which as we all know is one of covid’s biggest tricks. And someone said something about his kidneys being damaged; I don’t know if that’s universal to people with paralysis or just him, but covid also messes with people’s kidneys.
Must be nice to be able to get your third booster AND test constantly so you identify your case when it’s asymptomatic AND get the magical drugs most people don’t get. How nice.
A Dr. on CNN last night said Regeneron is not approved for patients with no symptoms.
I’ve always thought it was weird that a guy who’s handicapped, who presumably may have more reasons to fear Covid, has been like this.
Alas, I fear karma will get him as much as it did Trump.
If he’s fully vaccinated with no symptoms and not in the hospital why is he taking Regeneron? Something’s not adding up. Anyway, thoughts and prayers.
@amybee As I commented below I think it is so they can basically say it was Regeneron that helped him rather then the vaccines. The writing is on the wall. Right from Trump’s playbook.
@Annie: So this probably means he’s not taking Regeneron.
Ohhh, you probably nailed it Annie. Wow they are so low!
That’s a bullseye, Annie.
More likely he wants some of that sweet, sweet Regeneron money that DeSantis got.
His family and cronies have stock in the company that makes it. This whole thing is essentially a commercial for it.
“Don’t get vaccinated! If you do get Covid, which you won’t because guns and Jesus and sovereignty, there’s a drug for it anyway!”
This guy is so privileged- it’s sickening. Access to treatments, boosters, has cleaners who regularly disinfect, testing of staff. It’s absolutely mind boggling how people can support him and this nonsense. He shouldn’t be allowed any of it considering what he’s forcing people to adhere to, especially schools.
I predict that IF he recovers they will say how Regeneron works and boast about that rather then how effective vaccines are.
I hope he recovers quickly because honestly I could see the whole anti vax crowd saying vaccines don’t work should he not recover, especially now that they shared he has a booster.
Mind boggling is not even a strong enough word. And how about Cruz, who fled HIS state during an emergency crisis. I have become sickened by people who hold office. No statemen/stateswomen any more, all are dirty politicians.
Every time I hear a Republican bemoaning that we’re taking too many younger men from Afghanistan who should’ve stayed and fought the Taliban, I think of Ted Cruz trying to slink out of the country during an emergency. Not because someone was coming to chop off his head, but because, oh my God, destroying America is just SO exhausting and he needed a vacation. And then tried to throw his own daughters under the bus when people called him out.
The Democrats have plenty of dedicated elected officials. Let’s not both sides this when the rank hypocrisy is so heavy on one side.
@Betsy, there are good and bad in both parties, but there is no way to select who to toss and who to keep. The whole system needs to be revamped for 2021. We need term limits for everyone, because what we have is broken and people have learned how to best take advantage of their position.
His office is obviously capable of lying about his receiving a third dose, just to spread more distrust. Also, could he have financial interest in Regeneron?
That is a great point. Most of these politicians have vested interest in companies we have no clue about.
He does.
The no mandate governors are heavy pushers of Regeneron. There’s definitely financial kickbacks happening
We KNOW there was stock manipulations, and buying/selling after that republitTHUG meeting Feb. 2020, just before things were locked down a few weeks later in March 2020. We KNOW Rand Paul and his wife bought stock in it; we’ve heard about others who bought shares in “drug” companies, too. It’s not hard to connect the dots.
And at about $2100 a shot, if you want the populace to use it, and ins. cos. will raise rates to cover it. So whether your personal ins. rates rise, or you are on supplemented (the the taxpayer basically foots the bill), they will make out like bandits.
It’s nice that Kaiser muffled her laughter. She’s a better person than I am, I just straight up laughed out loud.
Texas also requested five morgue trucks from the federal government yesterday. Screw this guy. Seriously. He and Ron DeSantis are the harbingers of death.
See, for all these goverment officials who adamantly deny the efficacy of vaccines and are against masks but get the best treatment for themselves when they contract it, I don’t want them to die. I want them to suffer just the right amount. The one where they get mild symptoms like losing taste and smell and struggle to eat for the rest of their lives. And get just the right amount of damage to their hearts that they can be up an about for short periods of time but will never be able to engage in amy kind of strenuous activity, who have to go to the hospital every few years because they have mini-strokes. I want their lives to be bearable enough to live, but unbearable enough they depend on the care of others to get through the rest of their lives. Death by a thousand cuts and medical insults as their bodies rot over the years.
They don’t deserve to die within a few weeks— that’s too merciful. They deserve to carry their symptoms for the rest of their lives and become lepers in their own social circles, and live with the regret and guilt every single day until the illness is so debilitating they’re abandoned by friends and family as the sequelae run its course. I hope that their demise in health comes during the golden years they hoped to spend playing with their grandchildren and retiring in comfort, just to see the money sucked up by insurance and finally require inpatient treatment because their organs have broken down.
One of the greatest gifts towards the end of life is the gift of dying with dignity. I hope Abbott, and all government officials who’ve made detrimental policy decisions regarding covid, are denied that.
I completely agree with you. I am ALL out of any empathy and compassion for ALL of those bastards. Done. There is NO NEED for this to be this bad, NONE.
Truly poetry, LaraW”. I applaud you.
Our Deputy Governor has already thoughtfully declared that he’d rather sacrifice himself and the fellow grandparents so that their grandchildren don’t have to wear those terrible masks.
Agree with everything you say, LaraW”, but I take issue with your use of the term, ‘leper’. I know people who contracted Hansen’s disease & were banished to a leprosy settlement (the term used at the time) at Kalaupapa on the island of Molokai, state of Hawaii. The l-word is a hurtful term & no longer in use. I hope this link is OK: http://idealeprosydignity.org
Thanks Beanie for the info, really appreciate it. I will refrain from using the word ‘leper’ in a thoughtless manner going forward and will be careful with my language.
“To the pain!”
LaraW”: Thank you for your thoughtful consideration of my comment.
I’m confused. He is fully vaccinated, with a booster shot, but he is trying to ban masks and vaccines for everyone else? The audacity of this a**hole. But, his supporters, much like 45’s, don’t see or care about the blatant hypocrisy here.
I fully despise Abbott but he isn’t banning masks and vaccine’s, he is banning mandates along with contract tracing.
Abbott’s unflinching opposition to Texas school districts deciding for themselves whether they want to enforce wearing masks inside schools, in response to the increased threat posed by the Delta variant, is effectively banning masks.
Every single person not vaccinated and/or not wearing a mask makes vaccines and masks less effective — in both the short and long term — for everyone else.
Which makes semantical tapdancing decidedly less cute.
I read a few days ago that some people in Germany were (accidentally?) given saline instead of the vaccine. Hmm. When these anti-vaxxers come crawling back for boosters or get hospitalized…
It’s a thought, anyway.
It was an anti-vax nurse who switched vaccines for saline. Months ago. Nobody knew. She’s now been arrested and all the people who went to that clinic have to go back and get vaccinated again because they don’t know who got saline and who got the real vaccine.
The idea of anti-vaxx healthcare professionals just…it boggles the mind. I find it extra worrying because I have chronic health issues that require frequent interactions with them. I live in NYC, where we’ve mandated vaccinations for healthcare workers, but still, you never know to what depths a depraved anti-vaxxer will sink to harm others.
I hope that nurse is severely punished. What she did amounts to attempted murder, at the very least.
German news reported 8,000 doses of saline were administered. I hope she gets at least eighty years.
Texas dosen’t have expanded Medicaid like ALL of the Blue states…so if folks who ARE fully vaccinated & get a breakthrough case & don’t have a source of income…they can’t even go to the Doctor while Govenor POS can lay up in the hospital getting the LATEST treatment because he’s let Covid run so WILD in his state that it can NOW breakthrough 3 VACCINATION SHOTS IN LESS THAN A YEAR SO G-D KNOWS WHAT TYPE OF VARIANT IS FLOATING AROUND THAT STATE BUT WE NOW KNOW IT IS STRONG AF! And NONE of this would be happening if we had ONLY STAYED MASKED & SOCIAL DISTANCING!
I just…..
He’s not even in the hospital while other people who are actually very sick can’t be there. This sounds like he’s being treated from home! He gets doctors and nurses and special treatment (that he supposedly doesn’t even need since he has no symptoms) delivered to his very own governor’s *mansion.*
This is my case. I am disabled, but not disabled enough visually for the disability board to grant me disability Medicaid.
My father had Congestive Heart Failure and he was approved two years after applying . . . three months after he died.
It’s rather widely know that they pretty much turn everyone down the first time. I’ve applied several times, but, unfortunately for me, some of my most important medical records mysteriously “disappeared” from the county hospital’s system. I have discharge papers showing I was there, but I’m nowhere in the system.
If it weren’t for my uncle I’d probably be dead by now, as I can’t work to support myself. I don’t have the money to go have another MRI on my own, so I’m pretty much stuck. If I get COVID then I’ll have no recourse but that same county hospital, with it’s at capacity ICU.
So, needless to say, I felt nothing but satisfaction when I read this news. This is the man who, just earlier this year, stuck by not expanding Medicaid. They have the opportunity, but they won’t take it. They’d prefer I die and it’s hard not to live filled with rage knowing that’s true.
@terra: I share your outrage and I am so truly sorry to hear what you are going through – and what you went through with your Dad.
What the hell has happened to our basic humanity?
I shake my head but would really prefer to bury it in the sand to get away from more news of outstanding Republican cruelty.
God bless your uncle! I wish you well.
@Hell Nah!
Thank you. And, yes, my uncle is amazing. He moved back to town as soon as my father died and then took in not just me, but also my sick grandmother AND the family dog! He’s not perfect, but he works hard and keeps a roof over our heads.
The approval after his death nearly broke me. I opened the letter that came in the mail and I was so furious I thought I might have a stroke on the spot. He worked two jobs until the day he died. He actually died at work as a courier. Picked up a package from an office, felt sick, went to the bathroom to splash water on his face and just . . . never came out again.
My father was a Libertarian and it was so hard to see him vote against his own interests, but he could at least be reasoned with on some things. My mother’s new husband? Family full of conservatives that are convinced vaccines aren’t safe, so my mother (my terrible, terrible mother) goes right along with it. I spend most days worried about my little brother, thinking up revenge plots I’ll never actually enact if he gets infected because of her inaction.
He was at a huge fund raising even on Monday in Dallas. Lots of older people-no social distancing not a mask in sight. Watch this turn out to be the next superspreader event.
Oh yeah, I saw the pictures. Lotta dead men walking in those photos. Shrug.
The fact that republicans seem to be totally cool with letting huge swaths of their own voters die out makes me feel like they are *extremely* confident in whatever voter suppression, election tampering, results denying plans they’ve got going on. I just don’t get how they can be so fine with seeing so many of their own voters, their most ardent voters, their craziest, most galvanized, most locked in voters just… die. Seniors were a huge chunk of their voters and no one seemed to care when the pandemic was targeting 70+ year olds. And the ones that are left, the younger base, the ones that storm Capitol buildings and go to rallies… Those are the type of voters who are willing to literally risk their own life and the lives of their family members—including their own babies and children(!!!)—just so they can “own the libs” by refusing to wear their mask at the grocery store and then making a big show out of coughing all over the produce.
The Republican politicians see that this is disproportionately affecting red states and red districts/communities within blue and purple states, right? So what is their plan? I’m hoping that it’s something stupid like “see how much covid we had when Biden was president? He didn’t stop it, it’s still everywhere, and the longer it’s around, the more freedoms they’re going to take away from you with their masks and distancing and vaccines! Jobs have been lost, homes have been lost, and you’re all probably broke because you got fired after refusing to get the vaccine and you’re banned from the local Walmart for pushing that old lady greeter to the ground when she pointed at the ‘Masks Required’ sign and then motioned for you to pull the mask up from your neck and onto your face. Vote Republican and I promise you’ll never have to hear about the pandemic again!” I really hope it is NOT all based on newer, harsher, more evil, more racist voter suppression laws and voter intimidation tactics combined with a coup and building their own new White House on the front lawn of the real White House and installing their own president in it and refusing to leave. Plan A is stupid and could fail, especially since they’ve killed off so many of their own. Plan B scared me a lot more.
So I am in Floriduh, and was checking to see if daily Covid cases were being reported again yet (nope.). On the state site, there is a Fox newsish “news alert” banner promoting Regeneron, and a list of 3 sites that provide it. Guess what? They are all in central and north Florida, where all the racist rednecks are. None listed for Tampa or south Florida. So I guess the plan is to save the Trump-humper honkeys, and let the brown folks perish.
Just read about a woman, who died of Covid 4 days after her husband died of it, too. They left FOUR YOUNG CHILDREN. Her dying “wish”: vaccinate her kids.
Their “FREEDUMBS” were worth dying over, leaving 4 orphans. SMDH,
And @(TheOG) Jan90067…of course the family started a GoFund Me because apparently the parents didn’t believe in insurance either. But hey, they got to Church Camp! Priorities matter!
And the Republican voters won’t care. They’ll still vote to reelecte him because “gotta own those libs!”
The same here in Florida.
Some of them are going to end the year without their children though. I will never understand this.
Children or parents, and they’re okay with either option. Like you Darla, I just don’t understand their thinking process at all.
And he ended the much needed unemployment early. I hope the worse for him.
For someone who is constantly saying don’t live in fear, he sure is acting pretty scared of this thing
Seriously. He is cowardice personified on a number of fronts. And evil, just evil.
I know you’re not supposed to wish for someone’s ill health or death, but I wish he were experiencing bad symptoms. Not only is he actively harming the citizens of his state, he’s gonna come out of this saying “see, it wasn’t so bad, I was fine” and further harm people. Just like Drumpf. I saw a meme the other day, “get vaccinated you can’t trust texas’ power grid to keep your ventilator on,” and I can’t stop thinking about it.
I’ve always thought it was weird that a guy who’s handicapped, who presumably may have more reasons to fear Covid, has been like this.
Alas, I fear karma will get him as much as it did Trump.
I agree on the symptoms.
I hate this man.
The great irony of it all is that there are so many Covid restrictions put in place around the legislators at the Texas Capitol right now. Mandatory testing, etc.
Also, I would love to see the financials of Regeneron, the biotech company that is doing the monoclonal antibody treatment that they keep mentioning by name. Who has stake in that?
So how do anti-vaxxer’s feel about this experimental treatment? I am willing to bet they are begging for it after turning down the vaccine. I know Abbott has 3 vaccine doses already, I’m asking about garden variety anti-vaxxers.
I wish the news would show more photos and videos of the inside of hospital wards and ICUs. Blur people’s faces for privacy. And describe in detail how people drown in the fluid in their own lungs and other symptoms. Be graphic. Be factual. Stop being gentle. At every school board meeting have a picture of the local hospital unit, showing how many beds are left for your unmasked kids. And then produce a hospital bill. Maybe even a funeral bill. Seriously. Nothing else will get through to these people but cold, hard facts.
Nope. Not even that will work.
THEY. ARE. WILLING. TO. SACRIFICE. THEIR. OWN. KIDS.
I am truly just about at the very bottom of the well. I feel so hopeless and depleted.
The head of Dallas health said this weekend that if a child gets in a car accident and needs to be in the ICU, they will have to WAIT for another CHILD TO DIE before they can get care. And Texans shrug and elect more republicans.
What an evil man.
The people who put DeSantis and Abbott into power are getting what they deserve. It’s only the people getting dragged along for the shitty ride involuntarily at this point that I feel bad for in those states. What a garbage heap of human beings, whom I’m sure had no problem getting that shot themselves.
From the comments I’m seeing here from TX, maybe he won’t stay in power. Fingers crossed.
Feel bad for the Democrats in Florida. Most Republicans have elevated Desantis to Trump-like adoration. I live in rage and despair aboutt my state and the pandemic. Also, Florida’s governor might just be our next POTUS. That’s how high up the Repugs are pushing him if Trump doesn’t run. Desantis is beginning to feel like Teflon Don. Nothing sticks to him here.
My sister and I both said that if Trump is back in office (doubt it), that all news would go off. I couldn’t stomach it. I would have to just block it for my mental health and live life — if the pandemic has subsided in four years. Highly doubtful in Florida, Land of the Trumpidiots.
Whew! I had to get all of my negative thoughts out. Now I can be positive. In a few months I get a booster shot. Yahoo.
I’m sparing no thoughts and 0 prayers.
He’s a George Herbert Walker Bush love child, no?
Do tell!
You mean he was born from actual humans? I always thought a demon summoned him into existence. (But also please spill the beans)
Once again, a Republican skips ahead in society’s line, while his rabid and delusional voters yell that he’s a victim or whatever lies they tell themselves.
Abbott got the booster and already received the monoclonal treatment!? The same incompetent, selfish, right-wing extremist Texas governor who refused to expand life-saving medical coverage to his constituents and has used his political clout to actually help spread Covid?
Meanwhile, in Houston, my structural engineering friend who caught Covid by way of her 2nd grader’s teacher, is rasping for air and was told that “people with measurable antibodies” (ie, vaccinated like her) have to get in line behind the unvaccinated for monoclonal treatment. No offer of a 3rd booster, no special treatment.
My friend is worth a thousand Abbotts, at least in terms of worth to society. She’s told that, “luckily” most of the current deaths from Covid are in the unvaccinated, but that’s really not as comforting to hear from an infectious disease doctor as one might think.
Can someone spread the delta variant at him. Just to make sure that it is safe not to ware mask.
Ugh if he has it with no symptoms it’s almost worse than him not having it at all bc it just adds another example to their delusional belief that COVID “isn’t that bad” “won’t kill you if you don’t have underlying conditions” etc. I’m still recovering from listening to that sh!t at last week’s school board meeting on the debate of a mask mandate. One ahole from the community who DOESNT EVEN HAVE KIDS IN SCHOOL ANYMORE edified everyone that he had it and it wasn’t so bad and that certain scientists’ voices are not amplified like others are and, what else, oh a nice quote from the Neuremberg trials about how fear allowed the nazis to control people. Absolutely enraging
This pains me- most of my family still lives in Texas, and they are being incredibly conscientious. But that doesn’t mean the statement that most people don’t care isn’t true. It must be extremely hard to be rational in a situation like this and surrounded with people who flagrantly disregard other people’s health and well-being.
I live in Houston and pretty much everyone I know (and I know plenty of Republicans) is absolutely taking it seriously. They aren’t still in hiding or anything but they all got vaccinated, mask when recommended, stayed at home during lockdown last year, etc.
It’s often a matter of age, education, and where in the state you live. There are a lot of Red, MAGA areas and Abbot is totally catering to them. But mostly, he is catering to the national MAGA base because he wants to run for POTUS.
Like most people here, I DETEST the man and I am only sorry he won’t suffer from this disease like too many others are right now. I won’t wish death on anyone but he deserves to suffer. He’s a toxic bastard.
Texan here. I hate Abbott just as much as I hate the Orange One. I didn’t like him at all before, but with the life threatening way he has handled Covid, he has graduated to enhanced hated status. His decision to oppose mask mandates in our schools has created a huge amount of angst, distrust, and anger. Our largest school districts in the state have all voted to have mask mandates, but Abbott is opposing that in the courts. School started here in Austin this week. On the first day of school a parent literally assaulted a teacher, ripping a mask off the teacher’s face. I don’t believe that this would have happened if we had a competent Governor. Abbott’s stance has emboldened parents who have shouted at school board meetings, and at teachers that the Governor said they don’t have to wear a mask! My only hope lies in the fact that some Republicans that I know are wavering in their support for Abbott because they worry about their children and grandchildren.
That’s horrifying.
I live in Houston, I loathe the man. LOATHE him. Our Mayor and County Judge have been busting their butts to keep us safe, and so many in the city have been doing their best to comply, and this jackwad has to obstruct them at every turn.
I did see the Superintendent of the Dallas School District on TV a couple of nights ago. He was keeping the mandate in place for as long as he could hold on, and said the day went very well, with only a couple of non-compliant kids. Texas parents DO want their kids to be safe, most of them.
There is a special place in Hell for people like Abbot, I swear. Endangering people for the sake of ambition. Someone who suffered a tragedy and now has a disability but has learned no humility or compassion for those who struggle. He’s like the opposite of FDR, basically.
He’s not stupid, he’s just rotten to the core.
I’m just west of Houston and the denial is strong out here. People are maskless, many are anti-vax, parents are hostile to masking, I know elementary school SCIENCE teachers who are anti-vax and anti-mask. They all spent the last two weeks cramming in all the summer they could manage at baseball games, restaurants, and parties. Two families I know just got back from Florida. Everyone started school today. Now we wait to see just how fast everyone catches it from each other.
In Northern Virginia here. School has been starting this week and last, and they’re already having to close left and right for cases and quarantines. Kids are waiting hours for buses to take them to and from school — If they show up at all.
And that’s WITH much higher levels of vaccination AND a Democratic governor who has issued (and enforces) strict mask mandates inside all public schools and buses.
It must be like living on another planet down there.
As an Austin, Texas resident, I can tell you that he is the DEVIL.
I came here to say that he legit looks like the devil!
Why is the focus always on the symptoms these people have or don’t have. The focus on & the questions asked should be an estimate of the number of unvaccinated people that have been exposed to their viral shedding because they refuse to wear a damn mask & the percentage of those that will need medical intervention to save their lives.
Lord, I’ve seen what you’ve done to others…
It is so, so tiring. I live in San Antonio- for 26 minutes last weekend we had NO ambulances available.
I have a 10 year old. People are fighting about wearing masks in schools when that is the ONLY THING available to protect kids under 12.
It has forced me to make decisions I normally wouldn’t – like saying my 10 year old is 12 to get him vaxxed. No regrets.
you did what you had to do.
I would too.
Our BC health minister had some info for anti-vaxers yesterday. “In January we had outbreaks in 49 care homes, by the end of February, we had none.” The vaccine works. You did the right thing, @msplnp.
This country would be so much better off without him. #sorrynotsorry
I couldn’t get outta Texas fast enough.
Fellow Texan here. I’m really struggling to be the good Christian I was raised to be. My not quite twelve year old started school this week. He faithfully wears his mask even though only two other kids in his class and none of his teachers wear one. We are counting down the days until he can get his shot. Abbott doesn’t know that kind of worry. Abbot doesn’t have to wait his turn in line. Abbott doesn’t know and doesn’t care to know the first thing about the Texans he claims to govern.
Yeah, I guess this is sort of funny, except when you consider how he could have been spreading it around before knowing he was infected. A day before he found out he had COVID, he’d just attended a crowded GOP event where no social distancing measures were taken, the crowd was almost entirely maskless and possibly many also unvaccinated. He gave a speech and took a bunch of pictures with people in the crowd. This kind of scenario proves exactly why mask mandates and social distancing are still important even with vaccination. Deep sigh…
I get the temptation to laugh at the stupid, but it’s not funny, and here’s why:
Governor Jackhole is already on monoclonal antibodies, even though he claims to be vaccinated and is, by all accounts, asymptomatic so far.
Rich white guy is getting white glove medical treatment (emphasis throughout very much on white), best of the best. He’ll be making the press rounds in a week or so, happy and healthy, crowing “See? Covid’s no big deal! Those loser Democrats just wanna take your free-dums away, with their masks, and their distancing, and all that common sense… don’t let ’em!!!”
See how this works?
I’m not sitting here wishing some of these pompous glassbowls would start dying so their worshipful masses can get the message here. But at this point, it’s the only thing that’s going to get through their stupid, stupid skulls.
Local news highlighted a few weeks ago a man who spent months in the hospital with Covid had $200,000 + in medical bills. He has insurance and this was his portion. His family was starting a gofundme for help. How are the rest of the folks dealing with the bills? Bankruptcy?
His behavior says he really doesn’t give a care about the constituents…I believe I read some districts were adding mask to uniform requirements to get around his threats.
He’s receiving the best meds not available for everyone and doesn’t care about anything except the party hardline, smdh
He’s always been an absolute piece of shit. Dude became paralyzed in an accident decades ago and was set for life after winning a massive lawsuit, yet one of the first things he pushed through when he got into political office was tort reform, so now no one else can get a payout like he got if they’re maimed here. Just a massive fucko.
he doesnt believe and against vaccine and mask but fully vaccinated with a booster shot? f this guy? i’m hoping he get cat 5 but obviously he gonna recover in no time