California’s COVID-19 deaths are no joke. Will Texas Gov. Greg Abbott learn the hard way?
Texas experienced its biggest single-day increase in COVID-19 cases on Saturday, with 1,801 new cases reported. That didn’t stop Texas Gov. Greg Abbott from taking to Twitter in an attempt to mock California’s struggle to contain the deadly virus.
In a poorly-made and inaccurate chart he posted on Twitter, Abbott tried to make a convoluted correlation between tax rates and coronavirus infections in California and New York. As it turned out, Abbott got both his numbers and his math wrong. He misstated California’s income tax rate. He also failed to note that infection rates in Texas are rising while the numbers in California and New York have been stabilizing or falling. Those are the only important statistics right now.
Abbott also fell flat on his face by attempting to make fun of California’s COVID-19 mortality rate. “Mortality” was misspelled as “morality” on Abbott’s Twitter chart, which was perhaps the only true information it contained. It depicted Texas with a much lower “morality rate” than California or New York. With a governor who appears to think a deadly pandemic is a laughing matter, Texas certainly does appear to have a inferior “morality” rate.
It’s hard to imagine Gov. Gavin Newsom or Gov. Andrew Cuomo attempting to make fun of states where people are sick and dying from a viral pandemic. With deaths and infections rising in Texas, it seems like Abbott should be too busy for stupid tweets. Spiking the ball while COVID-19 infections are spiking in Texas seems clueless.
Texas has rushed to abandon physical distancing practices, reopening businesses, churches, schools and gyms even as the number of infections rises. “Texas governor reopens more businesses and schools days after highest jump in COVID-19 cases in the state,” read the CNN headline.
It’s uncertain how this story ends. But regardless of whether Texas ends up beating the odds or burying thousands, Texans can expect Californians to rise above the petty sniping and do whatever is necessary to help.
COVID-19 does not play partisan politics. Tulare County, one of California’s infection hotspots, is staunchly Republican. Yet COVID-19 killed 28 people at one nursing home in Visalia. We have no idea whether the dead voted for Republican or Democratic candidates. We don’t know where they stood on issues like taxation or abortion — or whether they voted for Trump or Clinton in 2016.
All we know is that thousands of Californians — and nearly 100,000 Americans so far — have had their lives cut short by this horrific disease. Tens of millions more have made significant economic sacrifices in order to flatten the curve and lower the death toll. Our dead should be mourned, not ridiculed. Our collective effort to save lives should be commended, not scorned.
Earlier this month, Abbott took an opportunistic potshot at California by bragging that he had spoken to Tesla CEO Elon Musk about relocating to Texas after the bratty billionaire decided to violate public health orders and reopen his Fremont factory. Abbott likely didn’t mention that Texas had jailed one Dallas salon owner who, like Musk, also decided to break the rules. Shelley Luther earned herself a week in jail after she “publicly tore up a cease-and-desist letter ordering her to close” and reopened her business. Abbott then flip-flopped and revised his stay-at-home order after receiving criticism.
Hypocrisy is typical in politics. But attempting to generate laughs off of California’s death toll, as Abbott did, crosses a line. Gov. Abbott should apologize to California for his terrible judgment. After all, if Texas’ COVID-19 cases continue to surge, he might need to call on the Golden State for help.
This story was originally published May 20, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "California’s COVID-19 deaths are no joke. Will Texas Gov. Greg Abbott learn the hard way?."