Study: Texas Mostly Terrible in COVID-19 Response

Can we start out with the fact that I thought we were doing pretty good?

I guess I was so impressed with the initial availability of vaccines in my city that once I got my shot, I dipped out. Now WalletHub has taken a look at several categories of pandemic response, and the state of Texas performed pretty poorly.

Texas ranked #37 overall in pandemic response, but things actually look a little grimmer than that. Let's look at the categories:

Texas’ Safety During Coronavirus (1=Best; 25=Avg.):

• 33^rd – Vaccination Rate
• 40^th – Positive Testing Rate
• 38^th – Hospitalization Rate
• 34^th – Death Rate
• 32^nd – Transmission Rate

Note: Rankings are based on data available as of 12:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday, July 7, 2021.

I'm not really sure that "Texas" is the problem here. Taking what I know, it's Texans who are to blame. I think people have taken vaccine skepticism and politics to heart and have missed out on many opportunities to be vaccinated, which would improve our overall results.

It's terrible to think that a lot of people would dig in their heels on this issue, with the flipside being them not being there in the future for their family (or facing huge hospital bills or an extended period of time away from work).

At this point, over 148 million Americans have been vaccinated, and we haven't started howling at the moon yet. There are still time and opportunities available to you to be a hero to your friends and family (and also not be 'that guy who caught a COVID-19 variant').

I think it's time we tell COVID-19 'Don't Mess With Texas' by getting vaccinated.