Texas Progressives talk coronavirus, week 17

The problem continues to get worse, not better.

As I noted yesterday, a big contributor to the problem is Dr. Deborah Birx. Don't think her halo is tarnished. Rather, think that she doesn't have one, and other than some mythmaking plus reverse spin off the way Trump appeared to treat her, never had one in the first place.

With that, per the header, again, because of "Debbie" and "Donnie," and people like "Ronnie" in Florida and "Danny (Goeb) and "Greggie" here in Texas, we have plenty of coronavirus news split into a separate portion of the Texas Progressives weekly roundup.

People in Texas think about Houston, the Metromess, Austin and San Antonio when discussing coronavirus' hardest-hit areas. They ignore the Valley, and they shouldn't.

Think coronavirus cases are bad now? What if they're still spiking when a hurricane hits?

Kenny Boy Paxton, in another lying misinterpretation of the First Amendment, says that local health officials cannot force religious schools to close.

Addison has cancelled its Oktoberfest. Will Muenster wonder and hope if being more rural will allow it to keep its festival?

KeAndré Jordan explains how you can support Houston's Black restaurants.

The Current showcased a San Antonio man who became everyone's hero for matching his face masks to his ties.

Chris Hooks says that Abbott's diddling on the coronavirus is nothing new. Rather, it's part of his pattern of governing since taking office. Worth a pull quote:

In time, all kinds of Lege operators came to share the view that Abbott was at once a cipher and a bully, a view reinforced by his repeated attempts to force from office Republicans who offered even the most mild criticism of him, from the moderate Representative Lyle Larson of San Antonio to the right-wing Representative Mike Lang of Granbury.

Hooks notes that same diddling extended to whether the state GOP should keep fighting for an in-person convention or accept reality.

Everybody has been talking up telehealth and its possible benefits related to the coronavirus. The Texas Observer notes that would be nice, IF people could actually get it. (The hospital in my small town continues to manage to stay open, but has almost no telehealth services, I can attest.) That said, the Observer's story is about broadband deserts.

Kelly Victory is the latest doctor-quack to politicize COVID and Orac takes her to the woodshed.