Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo all but called out Texas Governor Greg Abbott in a very diplomatic manner for his failed control of COVID-19 on ABC’s This Week.
Judge Lina Hidalgo made it clear her hands are tied by the Texas Governor
When Judge Hidalgo was asked to give the state of the county, she used that opportunity to encapsulate it as if she had one opportunity to tell America the current state, what she tried to do, and what she was forced to not do by the order of Republican Governor Greg Abbott.
“Since before Memorial Day, really, we’ve been seeing a — a non-linear increase in our hospitalizations,” the judge said. “At this point, our hospitals here in Harris County, Houston, and 33 other cities, they are crossing, they’re into surge capacities. So their operational beds are taken up.”
Hidalgo then points out the incompetence and non-scientific nature of the governor implicitly. He dismantled the policies that were successful.
“What we’re seeing is that wishful thinking is neither good economic policy nor good public health policy,” the judge continued analytically. “We had initially this increase back in March. I had the authority to issue a stay home order, and I did quickly, early. We avoided the fate of most other communities our size. But since then the state reopened. Now we know too early, too much. It took away my authority to enforce these orders. And now all I can say is recommend, ask the community, stay home. … Today, restaurants are still open. Indoor events can take place no matter the size. And so that’s the issue that I’m facing here.”
When asked about face masks, she pointed out that it will make some difference to reduce the spread of the virus. She then castigated the governor not by name but by inference for the utter failure of leadership as she made it clear decisive action is needed.
“As long as we’re doing as little as possible and hoping for the best, we’re always going to be chasing this thing,” Judge Hidalgo said. “We’re always going to be behind and the virus will always outrun us. And so, what we need right now is to do what works, which is a stay home order. We don’t have room to experiment. We don’t have room for incrementalism when we’re seeing these kinds of numbers, nor should we wait for all the hospital beds to fill and all these people to die before we take drastic action. We need to take that action. We need to give ourselves the time to bring those numbers down and to learn from the communities that have done things successfully. We have to be proactive with this virus. We need to be real about what’s happening.”
Judge Hidalgo then gave the moral response to the question of pushback from orders that restrict citizens; take preventative measures.
“We’ve got to give it our best shot. But we have to all get in line that we can’t just be catching up to this virus,” Judge Hidalgo said. ” We need to be proactive, for the sake of our economy, our health, and just simply what’s right. You know, we shouldn’t be waiting for our health care workers to be overburdened, for ICUs to be full. Since when did that become the way we deal with these crises, especially in a community as compassionate as this one, which dealt with Hurricane Harvey?”
This is what competence looks and sounds like. Make sure in November 2020 to vote in people who believe in competent government. And in 2022 make sure to vote out the Republican leadership from Governor, to State Senators, to State Reps. not only for their ineptitude in dealing with COVID-19 but for their inhumane voluntary manslaughter of uninsured Texans whose lives would have been made better with the Medicaid Expansion to the Affordable Care Act. Every day they stay in power, Texans die unnecessarily. And this is the reality throughout Red State governments that are the president’s sycophants.
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