The Coronavirus - a virus from eating bats, an accident or something sinister gone wrong?

[Muda69]

The Hydroxychloroquine Controversy Is a Reminder That Prescription Laws Are a Government Racket

https://mises.org/wire/hydroxychloroquine-controversy-reminder-prescription-laws-are-government-racket

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After President Trump declared that he uses hydroxychloroquine, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) walked back its advice against the drug and seemingly all others as well. “The decision to take any drug,” the head of the agency said, is “between a patient and their doctor.”

The FDA has had two shining moments during the spread of the coronavirus. At neither time did the agency do something so much as it undid something.

The first moment was March 13, when the FDA dropped its onerous approval process for coronavirus test kits. It was still late to the game, but the move helped save face.

On Tuesday, there wasn’t much left to preserve after the FDA commissioner issued a statement essentially nullifying much of his own bureaucracy’s purpose for existing.

“The decision to take any drug is ultimately a decision between a patient and their doctor,” FDA commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn said in an emailed statement to various news outlets, including the Hill and CNBC.

This came in response to President Trump’s remarks that same day that he had been taking hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) as a preventative measure against COVID-19 for “a couple weeks.”

“I think people should be allowed to,” Trump said.

The FDA would say that, technically, people are allowed to use HCQ. It’s just not government approved for anything other than malaria, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis. And although doctors may, and do, prescribe it for “off-label” treatments, a prescription—a government-mandated document that controls public access—is still required.

What does it matter, beyond the legal consequences, whether a prescription is written for HCQ or not? In Trump’s case, the president merely requested HCQ from his doctor. It wasn’t even recommended to him. Suppose no prescription were required and HCQ were over the counter. Might Trump or anyone else consult their physician or a pharmacist anyway?

All the prescription law can do is potentially weaken the doctor-patient relationship.

As the late Dr. Thomas Szasz observed in his book Our Right to Drugs, a “colossal charade” between patients, doctors, insurance companies, and the government arises from this regulatory framework of prescription drug laws. He wrote:

The fact that our drug laws require people to secure a prescription for many of the drugs they want (but cannot get on the free market) fosters a mutually degrading dishonesty between physicians and patients.

The FDA's latest statement that taking “any drug” is a decision between doctors and patients contrasts sharply with the one it made a little over three weeks prior regarding HCQ. On April 24, the agency cautioned against using HCQ “for COVID-19 outside of the hospital setting or a clinical trial due to risk of heart rhythm problems.”

Although not a direct contradiction, the May 19 statement makes a substantial difference in the April 24 statement’s effect. That’s because it’s reasonable to expect that the FDA will typically enforce its opinions through a perceived threat of coercion.

As investigative reporter James Bovard wrote in this space last month, the FDA has a history of using intimidation tactics to secure compliance with unfinalized prohibitions, including against “off-label” drug treatments.

In 1991, then FDA commissioner Dr. David Kessler told the Drug Information Association that the FDA would use seizures, injunctions, and prosecutions to enforce its ban on drug companies sharing “off-label” use information with doctors. The ban was never formalized, but Kessler said: “I would urge all members of the pharmaceutical industry to take a long and hard look at their promotional practices. I do not expect companies to wait until this guidance becomes final to put their advertising and promotional houses in order.”

Kessler would not be proud of the current FDA head, who concedes that “ultimately” doctors and patients have the decision-making power over drug use.

In 1992, Kessler said quite the opposite:

If members of our society were empowered to make their own decisions…then the whole rationale for the [FDA] would cease to exist.

At least Kessler was more consistent than Hahn is. There’s no sign that Hahn will follow through his words that doctors and patients may decide how “any drug” should or shouldn’t be taken.

That’s too bad, because when the doctor-patient relationship isn’t interrupted by bureaucratic third parties or red tape, it is the strongest bulwark against drug and prescription abuses.

What benefit is a layer of FDA regulations that simply restrict everyone’s freedom for the sake of those who will circumnavigate the rules, anyway? The principle is more commonly accepted in the gun control debate, but it is the same in the prescription drug control debate.

Trump got it right when he said people should be allowed to decide for themselves. His words clearly influenced the FDA’s messaging. We can allow ourselves a little hope, but realistically, substantial reform towards more freedom in medicine may have to wait until a worse crisis demands it.

 

[DanteEstonia]

 

[Muda69]

Nursing Homes Account for 42 Percent of America's COVID-19 Fatalities

https://reason.com/2020/05/27/nursing-homes-account-for-42-percent-of-americas-covid-19-fatalities/

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Almost exactly three months ago, the first major outbreak of COVID-19 within the United States occurred at a nursing home in Washington state.

Now, after more than 100,000 Americans have died from the disease that has swept across the country and wrecked wide swaths of the economy, it appears that nursing homes are still the most vulnerable places—by a wide margin.

In at least 22 states, more than half the reported COVID-19 fatalities have occurred in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, according to state-reported data aggregated by researchers at the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP), a free market think tank focused on low-income Americans. Across the 39 states that report the location of COVID-19 deaths, 42 percent have occurred in nursing and residential care facilities, a tally that includes facilities for the care of people with disabilities as well as hospice programs.

For comparison, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 2.1 million Americans live in nursing homes or long-term care facilities. That's 0.6 percent of the total population.

And the 42 percent figure may even be undercounting nursing home deaths. As Avik Roy, president of FREOPP, explained in an article for Forbes, some states (including New York, which has experienced a large COVID-19 outbreak) "exclude from their nursing home death tallies those who die in a hospital, even if they were originally infected in an assisted living facility."

That's probably why New York's official nursing home death rate is only 13.8 percent, the lowest count of any state that reports the location of infections and deaths. But outside of New York, more than half of all COVID-19 fatalities nationally were residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.

 

(Source: G. Girvan / FREOPP; Graphic: A. Roy / FREOPP)

These residents have been most vulnerable to COVID-19 in other countries, too. Researchers at the International Long Term Care Policy Network, a global organization that shares research and best practices, found that 40.8 percent of reported COVID-19 fatalities across 18 countries took place in nursing homes.

There are probably several reasons why nursing homes have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic. Most residents of nursing homes are elderly or infirm, with many people suffering from long-term ailments or particularly vulnerable due to weakened immune systems. People live close together, sharing living quarters and common spaces like cafeterias. And there is good evidence that the coronavirus spreads more efficiently indoors.

But some states made policy choices in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic that may have made nursing homes even more vulnerable to the disease. Governors in some states—including Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania—prevented nursing homes from turning away patients with active COVID-19 infections. Those policies likely helped spread the disease to some of the most vulnerable populations.

Other states, like Florida, have locked down nursing homes and prioritized shipments of personal protective equipment (PPE) to those facilities, putting them on the same level as hospitals. That may help explain why Florida has had fewer overall deaths than other large states—despite 40 percent of those deaths occurring in nursing homes—and it's something other states should copy.

As states emerge from total lockdowns and begin to restart their economies, policies must adapt to reflect the growing body of evidence about COVID-19 vulnerabilities. We now have a better idea about the overall fatality rate of the disease—about 0.3 percent, lower than was feared at earlier stages in the crisis. We also know more about how the disease spreads and which populations need the most protection.

That doesn't, of course, mean that anyone not living in a nursing home is safe from the virus, it does not soften the blow of the deaths that have already occurred, nor will it make deaths of friends and loved ones any easier. But the concentration of deaths in nursing homes should give younger, healthier Americans more confidence about returning to some semblance of normal life and should inform public policy decisions about how to slow the disease's spread.

"The fact that nearly half of all COVID-19 deaths have occurred in long-term care facilities means that the 99.4 percent of the country that doesn't live in those places is roughly half as likely to die of the disease," writes Roy. That means schools and many businesses can be reopened without the risk of huge spikes in hospitalizations or deaths, according to him, and that states must learn from their earlier missteps in handling nursing home outbreaks. These data have implications for policy making as states look to safely reopen their economies.

The coronavirus is going to be a long-term problem, but the next step in fighting it is for governments to lift economically ruinous lockdowns when possible and focus on saving the lives most at risk.

 

[Howe]

20 hours ago, TrojanDad said:

Howe gets blasted by the lefties on GID for his stance.....perhaps his comments are worth taking a little more serious.........

Surely public media wouldn't misrepresent anything, would they?????

 

Hydroxychloroquine has been FDA approved since 1955 and has been prescribed to millions of people by thousands of doctors throughout the world.

[Muda69]

Three Ways Lockdowns Are Costing Human Lives

https://mises.org/wire/three-ways-lockdowns-are-costing-human-lives

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The conversation about the lockdowns when the COVID-19 crises started was centered on saving lives at the cost of the economy. This makes sense since many of those making decisions were epidemiologists and we cannot expect them to fully understand the impact of lockdowns on the economy and human lives. The problem is even many economists argued the same and completely ignored the harm that would be created by the lockdowns.

These economists have fallen prey to what Frédéric Bastiat called the “unseen” consequences of a policy. Frédéric Bastiat argued that an “act, a habit, an institution, a law, gives birth not only to an effect but to a series of effects. Of these effects, the first only is immediate; it manifests itself simultaneously with its cause — it is seen. The others unfold in succession — they are not seen: it is well for us, if they are foreseen.” Applied to lockdowns this means that it is easier to see the deaths caused by COVID-19 than to see the deaths caused by lockdowns. In what follows I provide three arguments on how the economic lockdowns are costing us human lives and will continue to do so long after they end.

Deaths of Despair

A recent study finds that we could have up to 75,000 more deaths of despair over the next 10 years. Deaths of despair refer to suicides and deaths from abuse of alcohol and drugs. The study argues that these deaths will primarily be caused by increased unemployment, fear, and isolation. Unemployment is the main factor and the analysis is based on the projected unemployment rate between 2020 and 2029. The authors estimate that in the best case scenario (lowest unemployment) we will have about 28,000 more people die because of deaths of despair and in the worst-case scenario (highest unemployment) we could have up to 154,000 more people die. Given that a recent study that shows unemployment will remain high for a prolonged period of time we can expect the number to be higher than 75,000.

This is not the only study that argues unemployment is directly related to deaths of despair. Consider for instance a NBER study found an increase of 3.6 percent on opioid death rate for each one percent increase in unemployment. Based on this, we could see another 29,000 more deaths because of opioids annually. One may argue that these are only predictions, but sadly the indications we have so far show support for these studies. For instance, a doctor in Bay Area, California told a local ABC7 reporter “I mean, we’ve seen a year’s worth of suicide attempts in the last four weeks.” This is not one isolated case, Washington Examiner has reported recently that “More people died of suicide in a single Tennessee county last week than of the coronavirus across the entire state, according to one local official.” Hence, the lockdowns either directly through isolation or indirectly through unemployment are costing us many human lives.

Deaths Because of a Lack of Preventive Care

In a recent interview for Fox News, Dr. Scott Atlas, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, argued that now “the cure is bigger than the disease at this point.” He argued that in the U.S. every month 150,000 people are diagnosed with cancer, but the numbers are now much lower. Unfortunately this will lead to higher death rates for this group of people. Add to this the people who are not receiving their chemotherapy as they should and we start to see a clearer picture of how the lockdowns are harming the human lives of those with who have cancer. These are only two examples but if we consider the many more preventive care visits that are not happening it becomes clear that we will see increased deaths because of a lack of preventive care.

This has become such a big concern for doctors so that many of them are speaking out against this and hopefully we will see a policy response soon. As it is reported in this Forbes article at least 600 doctors around the country are calling for an end to lockdowns and their reasoning is in line with that of Dr. Scott. As Dr. Marilyn Singleton argued “Ending the lockdowns are not about Wall Street or disregard for people’s lives; it about saving lives.”  

Deaths Because of Hanger and Malnourishment  

When the lockdowns started many argued that it was worth giving up some economic growth in order to save lives. Unfortunately these people miss the point that economic growth is what saves millions of lives around the globe every single year. We know that as economic conditions get worse many people around the world struggle to meet their basic nutritional needs and this leads to more deaths. In the New York Times,  Abdi Latif Dahir argues that in 2020, 265 million people will find themselves in acute hunger and that will be nearly double the year before. To put this in perspective let us consider that poverty had declined since 1998. But one may ask isn’t the economic downturn because of the COVID-19 crisis? As Ryan McMaken has noted, in previous similar pandemics we did not have the economic downturn we are experiencing now, so the answer is no this is because of the economic lockdowns not the COVID-19 pandemic.

What is more, this is not a problem that only poor countries will face. Even though poor countries will be hit the most, we are seeing the consequences here in the U.S already. Consider for instance that “according to a survey that found 37% of unemployed Americans ran out of food in the past month and 46% said they worried about running out.” While deaths directly caused by hunger may not be high in the U.S. we must keep in mind that malnourishment also harms our health and leads to more deaths in the long run.

Conclusion

The careful and concerned reader may argue that it may be true lockdowns cost human lives but so does COVID-19 so we had to implement the lockdowns. This is a good point and it is not the purpose of this article to diminish the danger COVID-19 poses to certain groups of people in our society or diminish the value of the hundreds of thousands of lives that have been lost. The point of the article is that we must consider the tradeoffs carefully since both COVID-19 and lockdowns both cost us human lives. So, the answer is not as simple as it is sometimes presented by officials who are so eager to shut everything down.

If we do not correctly take into account the opportunity cost, in terms of lives that can be lost from lockdowns, then we will most likely continue to make bad decisions in the future. We need to look for alternatives and instead of locking down the whole economy we should protect those who are the most vulnerable. But, even when we consider this solution, we should keep in mind that centralized solutions hardly ever work for such complex issues and large countries like the U.S.

 

[gonzoron]

2 hours ago, Howe said:

has been prescribed to millions of people by thousands of doctors throughout the world.

So has oxycodone.

[Muda69]

Will grocery shopping ever be the same after the pandemic?

https://www.jconline.com/story/money/2020/05/28/rebuilding-america-will-grocery-shopping-ever-be-the-same/5191210002/

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If you're suffering from new coronavirus fatigue and craving normalcy, don't go shopping for relief at your supermarket anytime soon.

The grocery industry isn't talking about normal for the rest of 2020. It's talking about the "new normal" and what lies beyond.

Chances are shoppers can expect months more of seeing store employees wearing masks and gloves – and store signs urging shoppers to follow suit.

But industry officials believe the pandemic crisis and shopping frenzy are beginning to settle into a busy new grind as America tries to reopen the economy.

The "new normal" that's unfolding includes:

• A big shift to e-commerce.
• Continued occasional shortages for meat and produce items (though toilet paper is predicted to become reliably restocked on shelves by the end of summer).
• Higher prices as supermarkets continue to pick up the slack of feeding Americans amid wide restaurant shutdowns. 

What lies beyond depends on whether consumers or their finances ultimately change during the pandemic and once it ends. Industry officials wonder if Americans might keep cooking more at home. They also don't know how much a worsening economy will change consumer needs.

....

Before the coronavirus, about 3% of U.S. grocery sales were ordered for curbside pickup or at-home delivery, industry officials said. In recent weeks, 20-25% of groceries sold began with a click on a mobile phone or computer.

"The pandemic has done in the last five, six weeks for e-commerce what we didn't expect to happen for five years," said Doug Baker, vice president of industry relations for FMI, an Arlington, Virginia-based trade group. 

With so many customers feeling compelled to try buying their groceries online, industry officials believe many shoppers will grow comfortable with the service and continue to use it.

On May 19, Arkansas-superstore giant Walmart reported its e-commerce sales jumped 74% in the U.S. during its first quarter ending April 30.

Seattle-based Costco reported earlier this month its e-commerce sales nearly doubled in April from the same month in 2019. Other grocery players have said sales are up, but have not quantified.

....

First, there was panic. Then there was panic-buying and hoarding. And now, there are disruptions too.

What's so darned difficult about keeping enough toilet paper stocked so there are no shortages at stores? That's the question that dogged many retailers in the first weeks of the crisis.

The short answer is two-fold.

First, after many companies encouraged employees to work from home, a lot more demand was heaped onto supermarkets and other retailers. But second, an unprecedented wave of stockpiling overwhelmed the readily replenished shelves at stores.

Kroger CEO McMullen told investors in April toilet paper was selling out of stores every day by 12 noon or even 10 a.m. He added it was a shock for the supply chain to try to serve a customer that had quickly decided to quadruple the home supply. He alluded to a comic strip that depicted a grandparent decades from now finally reporting their stockpile was used up.

"I have no idea how much toilet paper people have in their houses," McMullen marveled. "We don't know what the demand really is... we're ordering twice what we used to – and we're selling twice what we used to."

Still, some industry analysts believe the hoarding will come to an end after consumers realize they have more than enough on hand – and storing it all begins to crowd their homes.

"It's not a production issue – it's a stockpiling issue. People are buying way more than they need," said Bob Hoyler, a senior research analyst at Euromonitor International in Chicago. He predicted shelves would begin to remain stocked by late summer.

....

Earlier this month federal officials reported the Consumer Price Index in April notched its largest one-month price increase for groceries in nearly 50 years. Overall grocery prices jumped 2.6% in just 30 days, more than five times the 0.5% inflation rate recorded in February and March.

....

Personally I haven't been inside a big box retailer since early March.  I've frequented small local businesses but other purchasing is done via delivery or pick-up.

 

[Howe]

The manufacturing plant where I work implemented a mandatory mask policy effective June 01. The directive from Human Resources was to send anyone home who refused to wear a mask. Approximately 400 employees are having no part of the mask policy and refuse to wear a mask. The union is supporting the employees. Needless to say no one has been sent home for refusing to wear a mask.

Despite all the hype, the workers are capable of third grade reading and fourth grade math levels. They realize the coronavirus has a mortality rate comparable to the annual influenza virus.

[Muda69]

Was the 2020 Wuhan Coronavirus an Engineered Biological Attack on China by America for Geopolitical Advantage?

https://www.unz.com/article/was-the-2020-wuhan-coronavirus-an-engineered-biological-attack-on-china-by-america-for-geopolitical-advantage/

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t does seem farfetched, doesn’t it?

That the United States will risk World War III, using nuclear weapons, by launching a coronavirus inside China during the 2020 Chinese New Year celebrations? But that is exactly the scenario that I fear has occurred.

Here we discuss this horror.

If this is the actual case, and it is actually intentionally engineered and used against China, it means that the USA is flirting with global nuclear annihilation. This is nothing that should be treated lightly.

Maybe not so far-fetched. When you get into the details…

.....

A very long and rambling read, but worth it.

 

[swordfish]

4 hours ago, Muda69 said:

Was the 2020 Wuhan Coronavirus an Engineered Biological Attack on China by America for Geopolitical Advantage?

https://www.unz.com/article/was-the-2020-wuhan-coronavirus-an-engineered-biological-attack-on-china-by-america-for-geopolitical-advantage/

A very long and rambling read, but worth it.

 

If that is the case - Karma?

[gonzoron]

On 6/2/2020 at 6:24 PM, Howe said:

The manufacturing plant where I work implemented a mandatory mask policy effective June 01. The directive from Human Resources was to send anyone home who refused to wear a mask. Approximately 400 employees are having no part of the mask policy and refuse to wear a mask. The union is supporting the employees. Needless to say no one has been sent home for refusing to wear a mask.

Despite all the hype, the workers are capable of third grade reading and fourth grade math levels. They realize the coronavirus has a mortality rate comparable to the annual influenza virus.

Are Contractors also required to wear them when visiting the plant?

[Howe]

12 minutes ago, gonzoron said:

Are Contractors also required to wear them when visiting the plant?

The directive from Human Resources made no reference to contractors. I assume they are required to wear a mask.

One interesting observation is forklifts are assigned to each individual per shift. One forklift has TRUMP painted in large black letters across the back. The company has painted over the letters on the forklift but they reappear a few days later. The company has given up and the forklift still has TRUMP painted in large black letters across the back. The individuals on each shift who are assigned to that particular forklift are black.

[swordfish]

7 minutes ago, Howe said:

The directive from Human Resources made no reference to contractors. I assume they are required to wear a mask.

One interesting observation is forklifts are assigned to each individual per shift. One forklift has TRUMP painted in large black letters across the back. The company has painted over the letters on the forklift but they reappear a few days later. The company has given up and the forklift still has TRUMP painted in large black letters across the back. The individuals on each shift who are assigned to that particular forklift are black.

According to Joe Biden, that cannot be true.......

 

[DanteEstonia]

On 6/4/2020 at 12:52 PM, Howe said:

The directive from Human Resources made no reference to contractors. I assume they are required to wear a mask.

One interesting observation is forklifts are assigned to each individual per shift. One forklift has TRUMP painted in large black letters across the back. The company has painted over the letters on the forklift but they reappear a few days later. The company has given up and the forklift still has TRUMP painted in large black letters across the back. The individuals on each shift who are assigned to that particular forklift are black.

Cool story bro. 

[gonzoron]

On 6/4/2020 at 3:52 PM, Howe said:

The directive from Human Resources made no reference to contractors. I assume they are required to wear a mask.

One interesting observation is forklifts are assigned to each individual per shift. One forklift has TRUMP painted in large black letters across the back. The company has painted over the letters on the forklift but they reappear a few days later. The company has given up and the forklift still has TRUMP painted in large black letters across the back. The individuals on each shift who are assigned to that particular forklift are black.

Is it the forklift that killed the worker a few years ago?

[Howe]

The Lancet retracts and withdraws fake Hydroxychloroquine study. Dr. Fauci supported the fake study last week. Dr. Fauci hasn't said a word since the fake Hydroxychloroquine study has been retracted and withdrawn. The New England Journal of Medicine also published information from the same source. A company no one in the medical community is familiar with - Surgisphere.

 

[Muda69]

Kristi Noem: The Governor Who Stayed the Course

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/06/coronavirus-pandemic-south-dakota-governor-kristi-noem-stayed-the-course/

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The coronavirus crisis hasn’t been kind to the reputations of many governors.

New York’s Andrew Cuomo held effective news conferences that at first burnished his image, but he’s now ducking responsibility for sending virus patients back into nursing homes where the disease promptly spread. Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer is now seen as a scold who on the one hand has kept pot dispensaries open but, on the other, last week told residents who’ve gone three months without hair care to just “Google how to do a haircut.”  

Among the governors whose reputation has clearly been enhanced is South Dakota’s Kristi Noem. The 48-year-old Republican, who still ranches her family’s land, didn’t issue a shelter-in-place lockdown order for her state. “The people themselves are primarily responsible for their safety,” she said in a public statement in April. She added that the state and national constitutions “prevent us from taking draconian measures much like the Chinese government has done.”

.....

Quite refreshing to hear that statement come from a modern day politician.

 

[Howe]

 

[TheStatGuy]

BREAKING: Texas has never had more people hospitalized for COVID-19 than it is reporting today. We have 1,935 people hospitalized and over the last 7 days are averaging 1,836 patients per day. During the previous 7 days we we averaging 1,681 over 7-day period.

 

That great texas leadership that DE told us about. 

[TheStatGuy]

Since Wednesday 132 people have died from COVID-19 in Texas. We'll have updated numbers on deaths over last 24 hours later this afternoon.

 

The state still has more than 15,000 hospital beds available if numbers keep surging and more than 5,800 ventilators ready.

This comes less than a week after Gov. Greg Abbott announced bars, amusement parks and carnivals could open to 50 percent capacity.

[Howe]

The official autopsy of George Floyd said asphyxiation was not the cause of death. He tested positive for COVID-19 on April 13.

[Howe]

 

[swordfish]

[Howe]

Political activist and Big Pharmaceutical spokesman. I haven't heard a word from this fraud since the Hydroxychloroquine study was retracted, withdrawn and proven to be based on a hoax.

[Bobref]

And this is what comes from the push to re-open prematurely. The significance here is that the spike in numbers can’t be dismissed as the product of increased testing. These are actual hospitalizations.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2020/06/23/texas-hits-worrisome-new-high-5000-coronavirus-cases-in-one-day/#5ede9a2c172f

Texas Hits Worrisome New High: 5,000 Coronavirus Cases In One Day

Nicholas ReimannForbes Staff

Texas continues to set unwanted coronavirus records as a spike this month shows no signs of slowing down, as the state reports over 5,000 new cases Tuesday for the first time since the pandemic started and set a new record high in coronavirus hospitalizations for the 12th straight day.

KEY FACTS

The state Department of Health Services reported 5,489 new cases Tuesday, shattering the old record of 4,430 reported on Saturday, while the 4,092 reported hospitalizations also set a record—the 12th straight day the state has reported a new record high in hospitalizations.

The latest numbers—which include 28 new deaths—come a day after Gov. Greg Abbott held a sobering news conference, pleading with the state’s residents to follow social distancing guidelines.

“We are at a very crucial point in time,” Dr. John Hellerstedt—the head of the state’s Department of Health Services—said at the news conference Monday, adding “the trends are going up in a way we really need to get control of.”

Despite the rise in hospitalizations, there is still ample room in hospitals across Texas overall, according to the Department of Health Services, but in some large cities—like Houston—ICUs are reportedly at or nearing capacity.

Abbott has no plans to roll back any of the state’s reopening efforts, though, saying Monday “Closing down Texas will always be the last option.”

The state is currently in Phase 3 of its reopening, which has been one of the most aggressive in the nation; restaurants in Texas can operate at 75% of normal capacity.

KEY BACKGROUND

Several states are dealing with a similar coronavirus spike, including large states like Florida and Arizona. At his news conference Monday, Abbott noted that metrics for detecting coronavirus spread in the state, including the percentage of tests coming back positive, has been on a steady rise since Memorial Day—a holiday that featured large crowds gathering at popular vacation spots.

CRITICAL QUOTE

“The first obligation that we have is to make sure that people around the state really comprehend the magnitude of the challenge we’re dealing with,” Abbott said in an interview Tuesday on KBTX-TV.

The governor has taken an increasingly urgent tone recently when it comes to the spike, saying Monday, “Texans can and frankly need to step up collaboratively to respond to this increase.”

BIG NUMBER

120,370 — That’s the total number of coronavirus cases that have been reported in Texas throughout the pandemic. Over 24% of those were reported in the past week alone.I