For Texas Latinos and Blacks, wearing a mask is a life or death issue.

 

For a number of reasons, Texas Latinos and Blacks would be wise to reject Gov. Abbott’s recent announcement to lift the mask mandate and open up all businesses.

In the first place, the announcement has stunned medical experts, local public officials and various other stakeholders who have been trying to promote the use of masks to mitigate the spread of the virus. For example, Dr. Anthony Fauci recently described the decision as “inexplicable” while Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins called it “unfortunate.” Public officials in South Texas called it “hypocritical.” With little exception, the decisions by the Texas governor as well as several other states to lift the mask mandate was considered premature and a threat to the progress made thus far in vaccination rates. In my opinion, Gov. Abbott’s decision presents a potential danger that is likely to accelerate the COVID-19 death rates of Texas Latinos and Blacks.

Secondly, Gov. Abbott has been acquiring a habit for poor decision making. For example, Gov. Abbott’s decision on the mask mandate follows other questionable decision making that allowed energy providers the option of weatherizing their equipment for extreme weather conditions.  An estimated 40 deaths have been traced to the energy crisis thus far, while damage to the state’s water supplies and infrastructure has been devastating to many communities.  Rather than take responsibility, Gov. Abbott opted to blame the non-renewable energy sector for the crisis -- a tactic that was roundly rejected by energy experts. Texas lawmakers are still struggling to find a solution to the devastation caused by the energy crisis and the best path forward for ensuring that the crisis is not repeated.

Thirdly, although national improvements in COVID-19 elated hospitalizations and mortalities have been made recently, a recent picture of Texas COVID-19 mortality rates are alarming and should encourage Latinos and Blacks to reject Gov. Abbott’s recent order to lift the mask mandate.  As shown by Table 1 below, Hispanics (133.9 rate) were four times more likely to die from COVID-19 than whites (35.2 rate), while Blacks (72.5 rate) were twice as likely to die from COVID-19 than whites.  

Table 1:  COVID-19 Mortality Rates in Texas by Race-Ethnicity

Gov. Abbott recently launched an extensive media campaign to announce his decision to lift the mask mandate as the best way to revive the Texas economy, but appears indifferent to the differential impact that this decision will have on Latino and Black COVID-19 mortality rates.  Instead, Gov. Abbott is now blaming President Biden for allowing new migrants to spread the virus in the U.S. as reflected in a Dallas Morning News story:

“The Biden Administration is recklessly releasing hundreds of illegal immigrants who have COVID into Texas communities” [1]

 

Despite this claim, Gov. Abbott has failed to accept federal assistance to test migrants entering Texas for the virus. Public officials and community organizations in South Texas that routinely process migrants for entry into the U.S. countered that they quarantine and test migrants for COVID-19, and do not allow entry of any migrants that test positive for the virus. They felt that Gov. Abbott was using inflammatory language about immigrants that fuels hate crimes such as the recent incident where a lone gunman killed 23 people and wounded dozen more in an El Paso Walmart.  The shooter was motivated by the desire to “stop the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”

Lastly, Latinos and Blacks should not be blamed entirely on a lack of interest in getting vaccinated as they have  experienced barriers in accessing vaccination sites in Texas, which have been often located in wealthier white communities.[2], [3].   In addition, Gov. Abbott acted in bad faith when he threatened to withhold vaccines allocated to Dallas County when public officials announced a program to expand vaccinations to zip codes that included vulnerable populations like Blacks and Latinos. [4] The impact of these practices on vaccination rates has been noteworthy.  A recent report by the Kaiser Family Foundation examining vaccination rates in 35 states [5] revealed the following about Texas (see Table 2 below):

·       Only 7 percent of Blacks were vaccinated which was lower than their share (12%) of the population.

·       Only 23 percent of Hispanics were vaccinated which was lower than their share (40%) of the population.

·       The percentage of whites that were vaccinated (51%) was higher than their share (41%) of the population.

Across the 35 states included in this report, the vaccination rate among Whites was over two and a half times higher than the rate for Hispanic people (13% vs. 5%) and nearly twice as high as the rate for Black people (13% vs. 7%).

Table 2:  Race-Ethnicity of Texas COVID-19 Vaccinations, Cases, and Deaths, March 3, 2021

Race/Ethnicity	Percent of Vaccinations	Percent of Cases	Percent of Deaths	Percent of Total Population (2019)
Black	7%	19%	10%	12%
Hispanic	23%	41%	46%	40%
Asian	7%	1%	2%	5%
White	51%	38%	42%	41%
Missing	12%	1%	-	2%
Total	100%	100%	100	100%

, March 3, 20213, 2021

In my opinion, Latino and Black business, civic and religious leaders should launch an aggressive campaign to counter Gov. Abbott’s recent decision about the mask mandate and make Latino and Black residents aware that they are likely to face an increased risk of exposure and death from the relaxation of the mask requirements.  Latino and Black Texans should be encouraged to reject Gov. Abbott’s mandate and show continued discipline in wearing the mask. Of course, we all die eventually but it makes little sense to accelerate our death because our governor lacked the will to continue the mask mandate a bit longer as recommended by the medical experts.  

 

Reference Notes

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[1] Thompson, E. and Corchado, A. Gov. Abbott blames immigrants for spreading COVID in rhetoric that advocates dismiss as xenophobic. Dallas Morning News, Accessed at  https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2021/03/05/gov-abbott-blames-immigrants-for-spreading-covid-in-what-advocates-dismiss-as-rhetoric-at-its-best/

[2] Morris, A.  (2021, February 2).  Report highlights disparities – but proposals targeting effects on minorities months away.  The Dallas Morning News, Accessed at: https://www.pressreader.com/usa/the-dallas-morning-news/20210202/281522228766766

[3] Goodnough, A. and Hoffman, J.  The wealthy are getting more vaccinations, even in poorer neighborhoods. New York Times, Accessed at:  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/02/health/white-people-covid-vaccines-minorities.html

[4]  Choi, J. (2021, Jan. 21).  Texas threatened to reduce vaccine supply to Dallas County over plan to focus on 'vulnerable' ZIP codes.  The Hill.   Accessed at: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/535294-texas-threatened-to-reduce-vaccine-supply-to-dallas-county-over-plan-to

[5] Ndugga, N., Pham,O., Hill, L., Artiga, S., and Mengistu, S. (2021, March 3).  Latest data on COVID-19 vaccinations Race/Ethnicity. Kaiser Family Foundation, Accessed at:  https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/latest-data-on-covid-19-vaccinations-race-ethnicity/