He remains committed to the bit.
Gov. Greg Abbott announced new moves Monday to fight the coronavirus pandemic as it rages again in Texas, including asking hospitals to again put off certain elective procedures to free up space for COVID-19 patients.
Still, the governor did not back down on his refusal to institute any new statewide restrictions on businesses or to let local governments and schools mandate masks or vaccines.
Instead, Abbott announced he had written to the Texas Hospital Association asking hospitals to “voluntarily postpone medical procedures for which delay will not result in loss of life or a deterioration in the patient’s condition.” As coronavirus was consuming the state last summer, Abbott took a more restrictive approach and banned elective surgeries in over 100 counties before ending the prohibition in September.
Abbott also announced Monday he was asking state agencies to open additional COVID-19 antibody infusion centers that aim to treat COVID-19 patients with therapeutic drugs and keep them from requiring hospitalization. And he said the Department of State Health Services “will be utilizing staffing agencies to provide medical personnel from out-of-state to Texas health care facilities to assist in COVID-19 operations.”
That is a reversal for the state. In July, the state told cities and counties it would not send additional health care workers to aid hospitals with the latest surge of COVID-19 patients, like it had earlier in the pandemic. Instead, state officials said, city and county leaders should dip into $10.5 billion worth of federal stimulus dollars to pay for those workers should hospitals need them.
[…]
As part of Monday’s announcement, Abbott’s office said he was directing state agencies to “increase vaccination availability across the state” but did not provide further details.
“Texans can help bolster our efforts by getting vaccinated against COVID-19,” Abbott said in the news release. “The COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective, and it is our best defense against this virus.”
Well, some hospitals had already taken the step of halting elective procedures, so way to be out in front on that, bro. Part of this “plan” includes recruiting more nurses from out of state to help us with the shortage we are now experiencing. I presume this means he’ll be trying to lure them from states that have COVID under a greater degree of control, probably places where the Governors in question made an actual effort to get people vaccinated and didn’t kneecap local leaders’ attempts to keep their people safe. I have no idea why any of them would want to come here now, but God bless ’em if they do. I guess we should be thankful that Abbott is doing something other than literally fiddling while the state burns, but color me a little too grumpy to care about such crumbs.
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37 days and counting……..
A great source of experienced nurses, nurses that have direct hospital experience, would be to hire back all the nurses that got fired for being un-injected. Remember Methodist mass firing employees? How about tapping that resource?
These are people who know the danger, worked in the danger, and were formerly hailed as “health care heroes.” Why not bring them in to help?
My guess is because they, in fact, did Not know the danger (to themselves and their patients) of being unvaccinated and/or unmasked.
C.L.:
They weren’t let go for refusing to wear whatever PPE the hospitals mandated. Assuming those fired were not recent hires, they worked all through the ‘pandemic,’ so they saw what was actually going on. They donned the gear. They did the work, despite the danger. They saw people die, they saw people live, they saw people go to the ER and get sent home….they saw all of it, first hand, up close and personal. Saying they did not know the danger to themselves and their patients simply does not pass the smell test.
What industry do you work in? Can I make a bold, general statement that you probably know more about that industry, about the inner workings of it, than the average person? Can I postulate that you are more of an expert in your field than I am, or Wolf, or even Kuff? I wouldn’t insult you by saying, well, yeah, C.L. has seen his industry first hand, but he’s unaware of what’s going on in that industry.