Despite what critics may say, the recent spike in Texas coronavirus infections can be directly tied to our border.
We've recently reported that Texas border hospitals were seeing more and more COVID cases and now we have evidence those numbers continue to climb.
Medical professionals in border communities are now directly connecting the new infection numbers to a mix of cross-border travel, dual citizens traveling back and forth, and medical tourism patients traveling to Texas from South of the Mexican border.
The numbers are truly extraordinary. On Sunday, 42% of all deaths reported in Texas were in border counties, even though those counties account for just 9% of the state's population and are generally much less dense than the counties closer to the major population centers. The positivity rate of testing is almost twice as high in Hidalgo County (border) as in Harris County (Houston). Since June 1, Hidalgo County's cases have grown by 1,800%, while Harris County's cases have grown by 346%. Now we know why.
On Friday, KVEO's Sydney Hernandez, who has been covering cross-border news for years, reported that "doctors say they are not only treating Rio Grande Valley residents but people who crossed the border seeking medical attention."
"One of the factors is the border, we in McAllen Medical are receiving many patients from Mexico, they are coming in because their resources over there are also limited so they are coming into our area seeking medical attention and by law we have to provide it," said Dr. Ivonne Lopez, medical director of McAllen Hospital Group at McAllen Medical Center. "The patients that cross the border say 'we don't have hospital space over there, the oxygen is gone, we don't have medications so we cross the border,' that's the situation in the border."
Hernandez also quotes a Hidalgo County health official attesting to the fact that hospitals in Texas' sister cities in Mexico are overrun and dysfunctional. This is why we are getting the most vulnerable people and serious cases from Mexico. That is the only logical explanation for why these counties seem to have more deaths per capita than any place in the country, especially with comparable population densities.
Amazingly state and Federal medical professionals never thought to cut off border access to medical tourism travelers. We locked down cities, forces businesses to furlough employees, blocked American citizens from traveling from state to state, and required 14-day quarantines for people who traveled across the country but we never limited access to foreign travelers seeking medical treatment.
MISSION, TEXAS - DECEMBER 11: U.S. Border Patrol agents detain undocumented immigrants caught near a section of privately-built border wall under construction on December 11, 2019 near Mission, Texas. The hardline immigration group We Build The Wall is funding construction of the wall on private land along the Rio Grande, which forms the border with Mexico. The group, led by former Trump strategist Stephen Bannon claims to have raised tens of millions of dollars in a GoFundMe drive to build sections of wall along stretches of the U.S. southwest border with Mexico. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)