Sadly, under Governor Greg Abbott, Texas has the distinction of joining some other states in appearing to produce untrustworthy fatality and other numbers related to COVID-19. One cannot judge trends if the counting methods change, especially multiple times, during an event but that is just what Texas has done and it inspires everything but confidence that we are getting true numbers.
On 27 July the Texas Tribune reported, “Texas’ formal tally of COVID-19 fatalities grew by more than 400 on Monday after state health officials changed their method of reporting. The revised count indicates that more than 8% of the state’s death tally was unreported by state health officials before Monday.”
The state provided no solid evidence of an under count or why their method had been faulty, that was reported, but instead simply made an assertion of such which is hardly scientific or trustworthy.
Yet again Abbott’s folks lead us toward being more like the New York and California – and this from a man who ran on a platform of not being like those places.
On 29 July the Statesman reported, “State health officials reported 313 additional deaths attributed to the coronavirus on Wednesday… It was the most deaths reported on a single day, although they occurred over the past week or more, as state health officials have adjusted how they count deaths caused by the virus.”
Then on 30 July the AP had this headline: “State Adjusts Surging Total COVID-19 Deaths Slightly Lower.”
So which is it? Higher or Lower?
We don’t know because then on 4 August, the San Antonio Express-News reported, “The state is reporting nearly twice as many Bexar County deaths as the Metropolitan Health District, a jarring contrast that muddies a fundamental measure of the crisis’ severity.”
I wasn’t ready to join those calling the Texas fatality numbers faulty, until now. There is simply too much alteration, restatement, and poorly explained methodological change to have confidence in the numbers.
And then you have the entire controversy over the tested numbers, see the Houston Chronicle editorial: Don’t keep Texans in the dark on COVID testing results.
Yet again Abbott’s folks lead us toward being more like New York and California – and this from a man who ran on a platform of not being like those places.
See more:
- Major Update: Why the numbers are meaningless and inflated by Dr. Kristin Held, president, Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons
- Collin County Slams State’s Bad Coronavirus Data – Judge Chris Hill says the county is “100 percent certain” the numbers reported by Texas DSHS are not accurate.
- Texas COVID-19 Positivity Rate Plummets After Record High Set From System Error
- Texas positivity rate, Abbott’s key metric in fight against COVID, proven to be unreliable
- ‘Head-Spinning Discrepancy’: Why Numbers for State and Local COVID-19 Deaths Don’t Match
- ‘Major disconnect’ between state, counties on COVID-19 deaths
- Coding errors meant 504,000 COVID-19 test results were not previously reported to the state, Texas DSHS says
I for one, will remember all the abuses the Governor and other elected officials have done during this so-called pandemic. They have all failed us when we needed them to follow our laws and not follow all the other tyrants over the cliff.
Hell, they never even questioned what they were asking of us. They just lead us down a road of stupidity and continue with it today.
My first vote will be for Shelly Luther, because she has a bigger pair then all of them!
John Burlton