Texas Governor Gregg Abbott: Creating Crises as a Political Strategy

Texas has received considerable attention lately for experiencing back-to-back crises – the energy crisis that resulted over 50 deaths and significant damage to the state’s infrastructure;  a second crisis that is creating mass confusion among Texans by lifting the mask mandate; and a third crisis by falsely claiming that the recent surge of migrants at the Texas border will accelerate the spread of COVID-19 into in the future.  Interestingly, what these “crises” have in common is that they have been generated as a direct consequence of Gov. Abbott’s poor leadership.  Let’s review the facts.

The Energy Crisis: In the case of the recent energy crisis, it is the general consensus of energy experts that the breakdown of the state’s energy providers resulted directly from the state’s inaction to require energy system providers to winterize their equipment in preparation for extreme weather conditions. Pat Wood, a former chair of Texas’ Public Utility Commission testified Thursday at a Senate hearing that the misery suffered last month as blackouts left millions of Texans freezing in the dark for days could have been averted — if the state and its utilities had heeded a decade of advice to prepare for extreme weather.[1]. Federal regulators warned state lawmakers a decade ago that Texas needed to weatherize its power plants and grid.  In fact, in its 2020/2021 Winter Reliability Assessment, the North American Electric Reliability Corp (NERC) warned of:  

“…the potential for extreme generation resource outages in ERCOT due to severe weather in winter and summer, and the potential need for grid operators to employ operating mitigations or energy emergency alerts to meet peak demand.”

While most of the members of the Public Utilities Commission have resigned, they were appointed by Gov. Abbott. Rather than accept some responsibility for the crisis, However, Gov. Abbott opted to shift blame to the renewable energy sector, which was widely disputed by energy experts.

The COVID-19 Mask Mandate Crisis:  On March 2, 2021 Gov. Abbott announced that the state mandate requiring masks was lifted, thus increasing the capacity of all businesses and facilities in the state to 100 percent. The announcement was met with considerable rejection by the medical community and created considerable confusion among Texas residents and business establishments. 

In Gov. Abbott’s judgment, Texans had made sufficient progress in terms of recoveries, vaccinations, reduced hospitalizations, and safe practices related to COVID-19 that justified relaxing the mask requirement.  However, recent statistics by Johns Hopkins University  [2] show that Texas has one of the lowest vaccination rates at 9 percent and a high vaccine positivity rate of 13.4 percent.  In addition, the Texas Department of Health reported that Hispanic mortalities from COVID-19 were four times higher than the rate for whites, while Black mortality rates were twice as high as the rate of whites. [3]    In a surprise action, Gov. Abbott also threatened to block the distribution of vaccines allocated to Dallas County because local public officials were planning to target vaccines to the more vulnerable Black and Latino zip codes. [4]  Gov. Abbott’s indifference to these mounting mortalities has created a second crisis for Texas Latinos and Blacks who already experienced greater exposure to COVID-19 due to their jobs, housing arrangements, and limited access to vaccination sites.  

In anticipation of criticism that the lifting of the mask mandate would lead to increases in COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and mortalities, Gov. Abbott addressed this dilemma by creating a third crisis by falsely claiming that the surge of migrants at the Texas border would lead to a rise in the spread of COVID-19. 

Migrant Surge Crisis: Gov. Abbott recently accused the Biden administration of callously releasing sick migrants into Texas and increasing the spread of the virus.  As Gov. Abbott commented on a conservative talk radio program recently: “We’ve got our own challenge with COVID-19….only to be challenged with the influx of people coming in from the border who could be increasing the spread of COVID-19. The Biden administration must stop this illegal immigration program they’ve opened.”  [5]

In response to Gov. Abbott’s new “crisis,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki countered that Gov. Abbott was trying to deflect attention from the catastrophic power outages that left many Texans freezing for several days and resulted in many deaths.  Psaki also pointed out that Abbott has refused federal funds that Texas, local governments and nonprofits could use to test all migrants for the virus. Several public officials in South Texas confirmed that migrants entering the U.S. through their border were routinely quarantined and tested for COVID-19 prior to entry and release. 

Historically, the flow of migrants seeking refuge in the U.S. has been a challenge to several past administrations and is not a new phenomenon. During the Trump administration, many asylum seekers were denied entry into the U.S. and forced to wait in Mexico during the application process for asylum. Also, the Trump administration closed many of the organizations that had the responsibility of matching migrant children with families in the U.S. Consequently, what appears as a recent “surge” includes thousands of families that were denied entry into the U.S. by the policies of the Trump administration.   

In creating the fictitious crisis of immigrants spreading COVID-19, Gov. Abbott is following the Trump playbook for the “immigration and crime crisis” that was effective in convincing nearly half of Americans that immigrants make crime worse. However, studies addressing this issue in Texas [6] and throughout the U.S. have confirmed that immigrants commit fewer crimes, on average, than native-born Americans [7,8]. Figure 1 below shows the results of a large-scale analysis relating violent crime rates and growth of the immigrant population in 200 U.S. metropolitan areas.

Figure 1: Immigrant Population and Violent Crime by U.S. Metro Areas 

Note: Study analyzed violent crime rates and immigration levels in 200 U.S. metropolitan areas

Following are the conclusions reached by the study investigators who represented four universities:

“In 136 metro areas, almost 70 percent of those studied, the immigrant population increased between 1980 and 2016 while crime stayed stable or fell. The number of areas where crime and immigration both increased was much lower — 54 areas, slightly more than a quarter of the total. The 10 places with the largest increases in immigrants

Clearly, fabricating a crisis to generate hysteria can be politically beneficial to public officials, especially during a time when many Americans readily embrace the various distortions of reality promoted routinely by public officials.  Ethically speaking, however, the voting public deserves to know the truth and reject the hysteria that often accompanies political campaigns.

Gov. Abbott, it is time for you to show some courage and accept responsibility for your poor judgment in these areas.   Your administration presided over the decisions regarding the energy crisis that led to the deaths of many Texans and caused significant damage to the state’s infrastructure. Your administration blocked the allocation of vaccines to vulnerable Black and Latino communities in Dallas County. And your administration lifted the mask mandate despite objections by medical experts, an action that is likely to increase the mortality rates of Texas Blacks and Latinos.   

In planning for the Texas gubernatorial race that begins in 2022, let’s hope that voters will remember the series of “crises” that Gov. Abbott has manufactured to shift attention away from his failure in leadership.  

Reference Notes

[1] Gillman, T.J. and Thompson, E. (2021, March 11). U.S. Senate hearing focuses on Texas’ overdue need for grid upgrades after Arctic blast triggered blackouts.  The Dallas Morning News, Accessed at: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2021/03/11/after-texas-blackouts-senate-probes-need-to-prepare-grid-for-extreme-weather/?outputType=amp 

[2] John Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center,  Accessed at: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/region/us/texas

[3] Morris, A. (2021, February 2).  Report highlights disparities. The Dallas Morning News,   https://www.pressreader.com/usa/the-dallas-morning-news/20210202/281522228766766

[4]  Krause, K. and Morris, A. (2021, February 21). Texas officials cut number of COVID-19 shots for Dallas residents, county says. The Dallas Morning News, Accessed at:  https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2021/02/20/texas-officials-cut-number-of-covid-19-shots-for-dallas-county-residents/

[5]  Gillman, T. J. (2021, March 3). Abbott-Biden tilt continues. The Dallas Morning News, Washington Bureau, Accessed at https://edition.pagesuite.com/popovers/dynamic_article_popover.aspx?artguid=80998d0b-9ca9-4aa4-b5d6-6bb7a9150f6b&appid=3565

[6] Nowraster, A. (2018, February 26). Criminal immigrants in Texas.  The CATO Institute, Accessed at: https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/irpb-4-updated.pdf

[7] Kurbin, C., Ousey, G.C., Reid, L., and Adelman, R. (2017, February 11).   Does immigration lead to more crime?  Not according to data. Newsweek, Accessed at:  https://sports.yahoo.com/news/does-immigration-lead-more-crime-101002691.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAGmvQhce8atAQZLKo9yOU-zQP_Hj8rmKABZIl8UeaEeGDftMTccfpJLMG1Qgv_nhl4B6beW7ihnkKrzJhS-EcxKS6wILtLXj7HUH1c1-iUz50sZvS8yASNWwOuL0siZgRcRN1gBtFNR1nIgPZPOg9p5XH_bedrESZSlfcsgIYAgU

[8]  Flagg, A. (2018, March 30). The myth of the criminal immigrant. The Marshall Project. Accessed at:  https://www.themarshallproject.org/2018/03/30/the-myth-of-the-criminal-immigrant

Careless Decision Making Creates Race-Ethnic Disparities in Distribution of COVID-19 Vaccine

 

The recent story in The Dallas Morning News was clear and disturbing: 

”COVID vaccines at Fair Park aren’t going to Black, Latino residents as officials hoped” [1] 

The story chronicles the missteps in public communications efforts to schedule large-scale vaccinations to historically disenfranchised neighborhoods, which are mostly Black and Latino and below Interstate 30 – groups that have experienced a higher number of illnesses, hospitalizations and mortalities during the pandemic.  Instead, however, the thousands of residents that showed up for the vaccinations at Fair Park were mostly white North Texans from higher-income neighborhoods following mixed messages to the public – many showing up in their Mercedes, Infiniti and BMW automobiles. 

Dallas City Mayor Eric Johnson blamed County Judge Clay Jenkins for the confusion generated by the announcement to register online with the county to receive a vaccine appointment at the South Dallas Mega Center – an announcement that was apparently not coordinated with the Mayor’s office. Word of mouth spread rapidly that an appointment was not needed for residents 75 and older – which left thousands of others on a waiting list and encouraged many out-of-town residents to show up for a vaccine.  County officials pointed out that a significant number of residents who showed up were able to access an unsecured web link that allowed them to book an appointment, regardless of age or status.  Other residents who showed up also pointed to emails received from the county encouraging them to sign up for an appointment.

Interestingly, Dallas County was not prepared to release a demographic profile of those that received vaccinations, a report that would have been very useful in evaluating the extent of the exclusion of more deserving Black and Hispanic residents in the targeted community.  As an apparent after-thought to expand access to the intended Black and Hispanic residents,  Jenkins and his staff began reaching out to leaders in those communities, including elected officials, faith leaders and other organizations that work in communities where the coronavirus was most prevalent.

The vaccine distribution fiasco in Dallas County is not an isolated one as many communities throughout the U.S. are struggling to coordinate the vaccinations using a confusing set of federal guidelines that are implemented inconsistently thoughout the nation.  In a previous blogpost, I had warned about potential problems that could complicate the distribution of the vaccines once they became available.  For example:

·        The Center for Disease Control decided to exclude Blacks and Hispanics from the category of “high-risk” groups, thus reducing their priority level for intervention strategies. Why?  Because the CDC concluded that the high virus rates are not due to genetics, and they want to avoid stigmatizing these groups as “COVID carriers.” [2]

·        Race-ethnic information is missing for many of the cases, hospitalizations and mortalities recorded for COVID-19, which obscures the accurate reporting of this information for Black and Hispanic communities – a consequence of lax mandates for recording race-ethnic information. The absence of this information obscures the true picture of community spread of the virus. [3]

·        Access to testing sites in states like Texas is problematic since these sites are more commonly located in white communities than the more vulnerable Black and Hispanic communities. [4]

It is also disturbing to learn that states like Florida have relaxed the requirements for vaccine eligibility by allowing anyone over the age of 65 years to obtain a vaccine, which has encouraged many tourists and out-of-town residents to drain the vaccine supplies at the expense of more deserving local residents.

In the case of Dallas County and the City of Dallas, it was unfortunate that better coordination was not in place to implement such an important vaccine intervention program at the Fair Park Mega Center.  However, even if the communications had been better coordinated, there is still one important tactical decision that could have produced a different outcome.

In my opinion, it was a major mistake to rely primarily on a web-based strategy to encourage Black and Latino residents in the targeted communities to register for the Mega Center vaccination. From their recent experience to encourage response rates to the Census 2020, both Dallas County and City of Dallas officials were aware that Black and Latino residents, especially immigrants, were excluded in large numbers from completing the Census questionnaire which also primarily relied on the Internet.  Our past research in multicultural communities confirms that Blacks and Hispanics are more likely to respond by telephone, mail and personal contacts when completing surveys and Census questionnaires but least likely to respond by using the Internet. Lastly, a Census population pyramid easily illustrates that a much larger proportion of whites are concentrated in ages 65 and older than Hispanics or Blacks – which would provide whites a distinct advantage when using eligibility criteria based on age alone.

For damage control, Jenkins reportedly began outreach to community elected officials, faith leaders and other organizations in the targeted zip codes – an approach that should have been followed initially. Whether by intent or just careless decision-making, Mr. Johnson was correct in stating that the county was “promoting a system that gave preferential treatment” – that is, to white, higher-income residents who were not the intended target audience of the Mega Center.

With COVID-19 vaccinations, there is less room for error in the fair distribution of a life-saving solution.  Let’s hope that public officials agree to improve the coordination of public vaccination campaigns by improving their communication strategies in culturally diverse communities.

 

Reference Notes

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[1] Garcia, N. and Bailey, E. (2021, January 14). COVID vaccines at Fair Park aren’t going to Black, Latino residents as hoped.  The Dallas Morning News.  Accessed at: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/public-health/2021/01/14/dallas-mayor-eric-johnson-blasts-county-after-walkups-allowed-at-covid-19-vaccine-mega-site/

[2] Rincon, E.T. (2020, July 30) CDC blunders in excluding communities of color among high risk groups for COVID-19. https://thecultureofresearch.blogspot.com/2020/07/cdc-blunders-in-excluding-communities.html

[3] Rincon, E.T. (2020, April 16). Missing race-ethnicity data complicates COVID-19 mortality counts, but the solution is simple. Accessed at: https://thecultureofresearch.blogspot.com/2020/04/missing-race-ethnicity-data-complicates.html

[4] Fanning, R. (2020, May 29). Across Texas, black and Hispanic neighborhoods have fewer coronavirus testing sites. Texas Standard. Accessed at: https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/across-texas-black-and-hispanic-neighborhoods-have-fewer-coronavirus-testing-sites/

Texas Hispanic Construction Worker Mortalities Are Alarming: Is Anyone Listening?

The news was alarming: Hispanic construction workers represent over half (56%) of the state’s COVID-19 deaths although Hispanics currently represent 40 percent of the state’s population.  The story, reported today by The Dallas Morning News,[1] discussed the results of a research study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) by a team of researchers at The University of Texas at Austin. The study pointed to the increased risk faced by Hispanic construction workers and living arrangements that preclude social distancing.

The story is also concerning for the issues that were not addressed. For example, the story did not include any comments from the one organization in North Texas that would have relevant insights to contribute to our understanding of this elevated health threat to Hispanic construction workers:  The Regional Hispanic Contractors Association.  

Previous COVID-19 news reports have focused considerable attention on essential workers in healthcare, the food industry and other occupations. However, the risks faced by construction workers have received relatively little attention, especially Hispanic workers who comprise 30 percent of all construction workers. Under the current administration, OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) has relaxed their inspections of occupations to verify compliance with COVID-19 safety measures which has undoubtedly contributed to the increased risk faced by Hispanic workers who often do not wear face masks.

Of course, we have known for several months that Hispanics and Blacks have been experiencing higher levels of COVID-19 illnesses and mortalities.  As I discussed in an earlier report,[2]  these COVID-19 mortality rates are likely much higher for Blacks and Hispanics since state and federal health data are often missing information on the race or ethnicity of COVID-19 mortalities. There is a simple procedure available that can estimate the race-ethnicity of a person based on their name and zip code with 80 to 90 percent accuracy – a tool that could be used to fill in the missing data and obtain a better estimate of COVID-19 mortalities.  

Communication of these alarming health risks to the right audiences is also problematic. For example, it is not likely that the Hispanic construction workers and families that need to know about their elevated risk of death related to COVID-19 will read the report in JAMA or The Dallas Morning News.  During the pandemic period, audiences are more likely to obtain news information from television and online sources if they have Internet access. And Hispanic construction workers are more likely to use Spanish-language sources of information.  Consequently, it is imperative that Spanish-language television stations like Univision and Telemundo assume an increased responsibility to ensure that COVID-19 health alerts are regularly communicated to their audiences.  Moreover, organizations like the Regional Hispanic Construction Association are perhaps the best vehicle to deliver and reinforce the health alerts to their membership.

While the issue of increased COVID-19 exposure and deaths of Hispanic construction workers is urgent, one wonders if the study findings will be sufficient to wake up the various stakeholders to take decisive action. As the story points out, Dallas-Fort Worth is second among the country’s largest building markets in September this year with an estimated 155,000 workers in the building sector.  But as one of the study authors, professor Lauren Meyers pointed out, the study findings do not necessarily mean that construction work needs to stop. “It means that we need to go to great lengths to ensure the health and safety of workers when they do go to work.” 

In the meantime, let’s ensure that Hispanic construction workers and their families are informed about the elevated risks that they face from COVID-19 and, more importantly, that they are provided practical solutions to mitigate the risks.  Following are a few suggestions for achieving these objectives: 

• Being the second highest building market in the nation, it seems reasonable to ask investors and builders to create a fund that is dedicated to keeping the Hispanic contractors and workforce safe and able to meet basic expenses. 

• Create a fund to offset the costs of funeral expenses for the many Hispanic families who have lost a family member working in the construction industry.

• Pressure OSHA to conduct more frequent checks of construction work sites to ensure that workers are following COVID-19 safety guidelines and have a sufficient supply of PPE supplies.

• Provide funding for temporary shelter, such as trailers or hotel rooms, to provide family members the opportunity to quarantine themselves when necessary from exposed construction workers. 

• Ensure that all construction workers are tested for the COVID-19 virus before starting their work shift.

• Provide continuing funding to organizations such as the Regional Hispanic Contractors Association so that they are able to conduct the needed training to Hispanic contractors regarding COVID-19 safety measures and risks.

• Lastly, ensure that all COVID-19 related communications are delivered in both English and Spanish languages.  Native-born Hispanics primarily view English-language media while foreign-born Hispanics primarily view Spanish-language media – a fact that we have confirmed from our 45 years of evaluating the media habits of Hispanics throughout the U.S.

End Notes

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[1] Difurio, D. (2020, October 31).  Construction workers hit hard by virus. Dallas Morning News. Accessed at https://edition.pagesuite.com/infinity/article_popover_share.aspx?guid=6e7208df-d7f4-44e9-af63-fef33cd734fb

[2]  Rincón, E.T. (2020, April 16).  Missing race-ethnicity data complicates Covid-19 mortality counts, But the solution is simple.  https://thecultureofresearch.blogspot.com/2020/04/missing-race-ethnicity-data-complicates.html