Governor Abbott opposes mandates for masks and vaccinations. Yesterday he tested positive for COVID. He has been holding large meetings where no one is masked.

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Lloyd Lofthouse says:

August 18, 2021 at 1:04 am

poetic justice

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NYC public school parent says:

August 18, 2021 at 1:22 am

No problem, because Governor Abbott is a privileged Republican, so therefore he has access to special medical treatment that all of the people dying in his state do not. Apparently he received monoclonal antibody treatment right in his own Governor’s mansion, despite supposedly having no symptoms today. The same treatment so many privileged Republicans (including Trump) get that so few of the people who listened to them and died did not have access to.

It must be nice to go around maskless, forbidding schools from requiring masks, knowing that you, your family, and pretty much all of your privileged friends will be given special medical treatment as soon as you test positive, even with mild or no symptoms, that almost no one else gets, especially all the patients in hospitals and ICUs who would have loved a home visit with a doctor administrating that special monoclonal antibody treatment as soon as they tested positive.

I get why Republican Governors don’t care how high COVID rates are and how overcrowded hospitals and their ICUs are. Those Republican Governors know that the very best hospitals will always prioritize the care for them and their loved ones over all other patients no matter how full the ICU beds are.

Governor Abbott should have the courage to say “I would never use up any medical resources that the many people in my state who are dying from COVID need more.” Instead, the same day he tests positive, medical professionals are immediately sent to the Governors mansion to provide special medical treatment for his mild or nonexistent symptoms. And if doctors and nurses have to tell someone else they don’t get treatment because the Governor is calling, well Texas officials have ordered extra mortuary trucks from FEMA, so isn’t Texas so kind in looking out for the bodies of all the people who didn’t have access to that medical treatment and died.

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- bethree5 says:
  
  August 18, 2021 at 7:01 pm
  
  BINGO, nyspsp. Also my 1st reaction when I read this story.
  
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Mark says:

August 18, 2021 at 2:10 am

A real leader would go to the most crowded hospital in Texas, and wait in line, or for a bed, in order to receive his extra care. The same applies to his initial Covid vaccinations.

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- Mark says:
  
  August 18, 2021 at 4:54 pm
  
  —And before and after treatment, would personally help relieve the staffing shortage.
  
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Ken Watanabe says:

August 18, 2021 at 3:21 am

I’m assuming the Tank Abbott got vaccinated regarding his privilege as a governor to get full access to all available quality medical resources for free. The fact that he got tested positive indicates that 1)vaccination whether full or partial does not give one a 100 percent proof(so you need to be careful with your choice to wear a mask or not in mass public gathering) and 2) COVID travels through people who are neither vaccinated nor wearing masks(and some or many of those in the gathering will not likely get full vaccination.) Don’t underestimate the COVID breakthrough, and don’t act stupid like clownish political actors.

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- bethree5 says:
  
  August 18, 2021 at 7:09 pm
  
  BINGO, Ken. I also assume Abbott was fully vaccinated & had a breakthrough case. No prob dancing around unmasked in cheek-by-jowl unmasked govt meetings in a state that’s only 45% vaccinated with super-hi delta transmission, cuz… hey, free monoclonal antibodies administered to me onsite!
  
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JMN says:

August 18, 2021 at 8:25 am

Governor Abbott is fully vaccinated.
He’s obviously not against vaccines.
Many people have legitimate reasons for not getting this shot. No one should be forced.
He got COVID and took precautions by getting vaccinated.
Please tell the whole story.
Why aren’t vaccine makers fixing issues with vaccine instead of pushing as is?
This is in fact still a trial period
Fix the issues. More people would trust them then and those without medical or religious issues might be more willing to get them.

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- NYC public school parent says:
  
  August 18, 2021 at 10:03 am
  
  No vaccine works 100%. If Republicans’ lies about vaccines now convinces parents to leave their children unvaccinated for polio, whooping cough, pertussis, measles and because of Governor Abbott ending all regulations that children must be vaccinated to attend schools, what you will see are lots more children dying and hospitalized as has happened in some anti-vac communities.
  
  Is that really what you want? That all children should remain unnvaccinated for polio and measles and every other childhood disease because they don’t work 100%?
  
  Can you imagine what Texas would look like if no one was vaccinated? Do you think if someone from your family got sick, even though you only had mild or no symptoms, doctors and nurses would spend hours hand delivering and giving you medications instead of treating the many dozens of patients they could be treating in that time who are seriously ill in hospitals?
  
  Imagine no one was vaccinated – since such a small percentage of the hospital beds are filled with the vaccinated, that means that the Governor wouldn’t just have to order 5 new mortuary trucks, but 500 new mortuary trucks to handle the bodies of those who were left to die when doctors and nurses were too busy giving special medicine to the privileged and connected Republicans who tested positive.
  
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- Duane E Swacker says:
  
  August 18, 2021 at 10:06 am
  
  Please explain what the “issues” with the vaccines are.
  
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- gitapik says:
  
  August 18, 2021 at 10:52 am
  
  +1 on Duane’s question to JMN: please educate me on “…the issues”
  
  I’ve lost some friends as a result of this pandemic. And I know those who have lost their children and parents. Directly related to transmission of Covid 19.
  
  In my world; those are the issues.
  
  The FDA and CDC have endorsed the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines. The process of making that ruling “official” is a long one and the FDA isn’t changing its’ approach…so they used an emergency authorization. Because this is an emergency.
  
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- Linda says:
  
  August 18, 2021 at 1:55 pm
  
  JMN-
  Do you also believe in forced birth after conception, are you opposed to birth control (unless its the rhythm method), do you agree with the Koch’s climate change denial, and do you oppose CRT?
  
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- bethree5 says:
  
  August 18, 2021 at 7:35 pm
  
  “Why aren’t vaccine makers fixing issues with vaccine instead of pushing as is?”
  
  Could it be that ‘issues with vaccine’ are about dealing with a 1000x more transmissible variant that just hit/ spread here 6 wks ago? Could you maybe give them a little more time to ‘fix’ the vaccine? (if necessary: continue reading.)
  
  The vaccine “as is”: data from July Provincetown super-spreader events [90% of studied patients were infected by delta variant] whose analysis just came out 2 wks ago shows it does the job on vastly minimizing degree of illness/ hospitalization… Maybe all that’s needed is bumping up the % vaccinated? TX is only 45% fully vaccinated at the moment. MA was 60+% fully vaccinated when that Provincetown cluster hit: of 900 infected, only 7 were hospitalized [no deaths]– & MA/ Cape Cod is back down to very low stats now that folks are no longer engaging in crowded unmasked public events– meanwhile % having recd at least 1st dose in MA is now up to 74%…
  
  Vaccine “as is” may need to be boostered to the elderly crowd based on scientific stats that their immunization begins faltering after 8 months; that measure is already on the horizon & will probably happen. Meanwhile, other states need to heed & get fully vaccinated % up to 65-70% pronto, &– don’t engage in unmasked crowded events! (duh)
  
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- Mark says:
  
  August 19, 2021 at 1:18 am
  
  “Governor Abbott is fully vaccinated. He’s obviously not against vaccines.”
  
  Are you serious? Abbott is a misguided little man DESPERATE for recognition, validation and power, who knows he can’t change the minds of the ignorant masses whose votes he needs. He dishonestly and immorally caters to them while protecting his own butt by getting vaccinated.
  
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retired teacher says:

August 18, 2021 at 8:44 am

My daughter, a Texas resident, and I had a good Karma laugh over this. At least he had the good sense to be vaccinated, He should be the poster person for why people should wear masks. Wearing a mask has nothing to do with “liberty.” It merely reduces your chance of contracting Covid.

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- Linda says:
  
  August 18, 2021 at 1:39 pm
  
  It’s the same type of campaign that persuaded people to smoke. The cigarette ads touted individual freedom. The truth was- freedom to die young from cancer, freedom to move as far as the oxygen tank allows, freedom to roam without the body parts extracted to prevent spread of gangrene from circulatory problems,..
  
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gitapik says:

August 18, 2021 at 10:35 am

Shakespeare would have a field day with what’s been going on here, the past 5 years.

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- Bob Shepherd says:
  
  August 18, 2021 at 1:51 pm
  
  Indeed. Highly recommended read about this very thing: Tyrant, by Steven Greenblatt.
  
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  - gitapik says:
    
    August 18, 2021 at 2:23 pm
    
    Will definitely check “Tyrant” out. Thanks, Bob.
    
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  - Bob Shepherd says:
    
    August 18, 2021 at 2:29 pm
    
    It’s brilliant and darkly funny and extremely learned. Goldblatt is one of my favorite critics ever, and he is an extremely engaging, entertaining writer.
    
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  - gitapik says:
    
    August 18, 2021 at 2:35 pm
    
    I’m reading a preview right now. Thanks.
    
    I have a good friend who’s an accomplished Shakespearean (and other styles) actor. He insists it was Edward de Vere. who wrote all of the works.
    
    I tell him to put some Bacon on that egg and cheese and digest that!
    
    My personal: I like to believe it was Willy the Shake but, in the end, it really doesn’t matter. The works are genius, regardless of the source.
    
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  - Bob Shepherd says:
    
    August 18, 2021 at 3:22 pm
    
    Shakespeare’s works were CLEARLY written by someone who strove to rise from the lower middle class. They weren’t created by an aristocrat. His attitudes or those of one who scrambled to make it, and he knows the language of the lower classes INTIMATELY. His style owes an enormous debt to Erasmus’s Colloquies, a staple of grammar schools like the one he would have attended in Stratford. And his plays are FULL of references to the very flowers and other plants that grew in abundance in that particular area. No, his plays were NOT written by one to the manor born. He knows characters intimately across the social spectrum, as someone with his experience of life–starting in the middle class, slumming with theatre types, and later hobnobing with nobles, would.
    
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  - gitapik says:
    
    August 18, 2021 at 4:28 pm
    
    Hah! Love it! I’ll forward this to my friend. Excellent points!!
    
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  - Bob Shepherd says:
    
    August 18, 2021 at 7:07 pm
    
    There are those who would argue, correctly, that Shakespeare does not typically present admirable characters of the lower classes, but this is not surprising. My read is that he knew these folks and mocked them, having tried, throughout his life, to put as much distance between them and himself as possible. Think of the American born into backwoods Appalachia who then becomes, via education, a member of the intelligentsia and/or upper middle class. Same shtick.
    
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  - Bob Shepherd says:
    
    August 18, 2021 at 7:10 pm
    
    Class is a touchy subject for Willie. LOL.
    
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  - Bob Shepherd says:
    
    August 18, 2021 at 3:22 pm
    
    They are indeed. Willie and I are old pals.
    
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Joe Jersey says:

August 18, 2021 at 12:09 pm

Abbott and DeSantis are jokes but we aren’t laughing. They should retire from politics and take their “comedy” routines on the road where they can do less harm to the body politic. Hey ABBBOOOOTTTTT! The comedic duo would both play the sappy dopes, no straight men required. Hmm, maybe add Trump to the duo and form the new Three Stooges.

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- Bob Shepherd says:
  
  August 18, 2021 at 2:01 pm
  
  Except that The Orange Idiot, IQ45, is now not speaking to former Trump Mini-Me DeSantissssssss.
  
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- Bob Shepherd says:
  
  August 18, 2021 at 2:02 pm
  
  But Three Stooges? Perfect.
  
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Linda says:

August 18, 2021 at 1:50 pm

Andre Jacque is Abbot’s evil twin in Wisconsin. He’s a Republican state representative. After testifying in favor of his bill that bans CRT, he landed in the hospital with Covid. Jacque, one of the most conservative lawmakers, was a critic of mask and vaccine mandates. He is pro-conservative religion, pro-birth and has 6 kids.

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Bob Shepherd says:

August 18, 2021 at 1:52 pm

No Karma here because this SOB will get the same special medical treatment that Trump got and that is denied to ordinary morals who don’t pretend that Covid is nothing, leading to vast numbers of unnecessary deaths.

If there is a hell, . . .

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- Bob Shepherd says:
  
  August 18, 2021 at 1:57 pm
  
  No Remdesivir for you (the stuff costs half a grand a vial), but for special people like Trump and Abbott, the Special A–h–e treatment.
  
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  - gitapik says:
    
    August 18, 2021 at 2:27 pm
    
    I broke my finger and had to get a referral for a hand specialist, back in April of 2020. Height of the pandemic here in NYC. My GP is as down to earth as they come. He told me, at that time, that there was treatment available…but only for those who could afford it. And that there weren’t many who could. Had a full view of that with Trump.
    
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  - Bob Shepherd says:
    
    August 18, 2021 at 2:30 pm
    
    exactly
    
    I don’t know when Americans will Wake TF Up. We are the ONLY industrialized democracy with a two-tier health system–the best for the rich and very little for everyone else.
    
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  - gitapik says:
    
    August 18, 2021 at 3:15 pm
    
    “Texans don’t need heat!”
    
    Wake up call might be a long time coming…
    
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Yvonne says:

August 18, 2021 at 4:30 pm

Abbott gets rare COVID-19
treatment:

https://truthout.org/articles/tx-governor-gets-rare-covid-treatment-while-banning-mask-and-vaccine-mandates/

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- Bob Shepherd says:
  
  August 19, 2021 at 12:20 am
  
  Of course
  
  If there were a hell, . . .
  
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