Donald Trump has badly mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. He waited too late to act, and did far too little when he finally did act. As a result, many thousands of Americans have died unnecessarily, and many more will in the future.
Then he compounded his mistakes by urging the nation to reopen businesses, and dispense with wearing masks and social distancing. It seems that he surrendered to the virus, and decided to just ignore it in the hope that it would magically disappear (something he has said several times). Instead, he wanted to concentrate on reopening the economy to give himself a better chance of being re-elected.
Republican governors had a choice to make then -- go with Trump and hope for the best, or act to save American lives. They chose to do the former. They made a political decision rather than one based on science and public health. Now it's coming back to bite them.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott was one of those Republican governors who opted to go along with Trump in spite of what public health officials were warning. On May 1st, he started the reopening process. Now he is trying to backtrack.
The charts above are from the Houston Chronicle. They show what is now happening in Texas. Note that the positive test rate, the number of new cases of COVID-19, and the number of hospitalizations due to the virus have all shot up dramatically. The virus is out-of-control in Texas.
And Texas is not the only state that is suffering from Republican mishandling of the virus. The numbers look just as bad in Arizona and Florida and several other red states.
