No time to play politics with COVID aid
Abbott decides omicron crisis warrants more federal testing sites, monoclonal antibodies.
Anxiously scanning COVID-19 hospitalization data is no way to start the New Year, and yet here we are, in the throes of yet another surge in infections from a new variant that has left Texas health officials, hospital administrators and frontline workers desperate for a lifeline — namely, more tests, more treatment and more medical personnel.
The urgency is borne out of an omicron variant wave that is shattering previous pandemic records: as of Monday, Houston’s seven-day average positivity rate is at 31 percent, according to the Texas Medical Center, while the statewide positivity rate is a hair below 34 percent. Hospitalizations have also increased by 277 percent over the past two weeks — another record. Across the globe, the numbers are even more staggering: nearly 1.5 million new cases every day, making for an especially gloomy holiday season in which flights are being grounded, new travel restrictions have emerged, and mask mandates resurfaced.
To make matters worse, tests were either sold out at stores or required waits in long, snaking car lines to access. President Biden’s poor planning is a big reason why. He reportedly dismissed a bold plan from COVID-19 testing experts back in October to ramp up rapid testing ahead of the holidays. Even after omicron was identified as a problematic variant, his press secretary Jen Psaki last month mocked the notion of providing home tests to every American. It was an astounding oversight for a president who has gone to great lengths, including vaccine mandates, to protect Americans in this pandemic. We expect better.
If there is any silver lining, it’s that omicron appears to be a milder version of the COVID virus, killing far fewer adults than the delta variant.
But plenty are still getting sick — and this surge could get worse before it gets better. Roughly 1,200 school districts in Texas will mark the end of the holiday season by welcoming back students and staff, many of whom may have spent the past week or two visiting friends or relatives, heightening the risk that school hallways and classrooms will be incubators for the variant. As of Monday, 279 Texans under age 18 were hospitalized for COVID-19, according to data from the Texas Department of State Health Services, inching closer to the high point of 345 pediatric COVID patients back in September.
Gov. Greg Abbott hasn’t acted with anything like the urgency needed in past waves, but we’re glad to see he’s moving quicker this time.
On Friday, Abbott asked the Biden administration to open additional testing sites in some of the state’s most populous areas — including Harris, Dallas, and Bexar counties — and to send more shipments of sotrovimab, the monoclonal antibody treatment that experts say is somewhat effective in combating the omicron variant. The federal government controls the distribution of monoclonal antibodies, and infusion centers in cities such as Austin, El Paso, Fort Worth, San Antonio and The Woodlands have exhausted their supply. The Department of State Health Services has also requested three teams of medical personnel to help with hospitals in urban areas.
Of course, Abbott’s hypocrisy in enlisting Biden’s help is lost on no one. The Republican governor rarely misses an opportunity to blast Biden on any number of issues, and has set the stage for a lawsuit against the administration for ordering big businesses to mandate vaccinations. Abbott’s own COVID policies have defied logic and basic public health guidance, from a refusal to reinstate a mask mandate, his attempted prohibition of local governments and school districts from doing so, and the lack of any coordinated, top-down effort to encourage people to get shots in a state that still lags the national average in vaccinations.
Nevertheless, in times of crisis, the federal government is supposed to be a backstop for states that don’t have the means to help people. Just as it was appalling for President Trump to demand governors praise him in exchange for COVID relief, it would be foolish for President Biden — who frequently calls for basic decency and bipartisanship — to do the same. Thankfully, it appears he is attempting to satisfy Abbott’s request. A spokesman for the Department of State Health Services told the editorial board that Texas received 2,280 courses of sotrovimab last week and another 2,406 courses this week from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Anthony Fauci, Biden’s top medical adviser, has said he expects omicron to peak relatively soon, as it has appeared to do in South Africa, where it was first confirmed. The available COVID vaccines and boosters continue to offer solid protection — a United Kingdom study found that people who had received booster doses were 81 percent less likely to be admitted to the hospital.
If you squint hard, you can envision a future in which omicron usurps delta globally as the dominant strain, infections begin to wane as more people continue to get vaccinated and natural immunity develops, and the virus becomes more of a seasonal headache on par with the flu.
But first, we must get through this surge. It’s imperative that every level of government works closely to stanch the bleeding. This is no time to play politics.