To Open or Not to Open

As a Texan, I’ve grown up with a distinctive level of Texas pride. For outsiders, it’s not something that can be explained. We just have a sense of state allegiance, pride, and community that is unparalleled to any other state. Sure, Alaska may be bigger, but that vastness includes uninhabitable regions and bouts of zero sun and zero darkness at times. We know barbecue, we know fried everything, we know guns, we know liberty, we know how saying, “Bless your heart,” is the politer equivalent of flipping someone off.

We’re not perfect as a state. While we tend to be a “red state” politically, there are large sections of blue in the state that keep us relatively balanced (primarily counties bordering Mexico and larger metroplexes). So many people have heated views on coronavirus and whether we should be at home social distancing or whether we should open back up and save the economy. In Texas, we’re not immune to the debate… Governor Abbott just awarded the victory of the controversy to the open back up crowd.

I get where he’s coming from, don’t get me wrong. We’re roughly a decade from beginning recovery of the 2008 financial collapse. We know businesses, especially the small ones, are most at-risk during economic down-turns. We know service industry employees will likely feel the hit first as discretionary spending is frozen by families already living on a shoestring budget. We can look at the Bay Area of California who enacted a harsher lock-down early in the game and see it worked – they haven’t had the massive spikes of other cities and states. By allowing industries to open back up, insurance companies are more likely off the hook for any claims of “business interruption” or other legalese as the company makes the choice to remain closed.

On the flip side, we have the people who believe in remaining under current lock-down instructions to “flatten the curve” and “stay home, save lives”. I’m a high-risk person married to a high-risk person, believe me, I certainly understand this point of view. I’m a huge proponent of personal space and have been for pretty much my entire life. When I lived in Asia, I highly struggled with the concept of personal space, it’s non-existent in many Asian cultures including the Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans I was around. Has this method been effective? We can’t really know. Testing in Texas has been bare minimum in terms of testing – we’re not the worst, but we’re certainly nowhere close to bragging rights. <Yes, I prefer the green area below as my minimum personal space distance>

We have large cities, but they do not have the population density of NYC (the highest population density in Texas is South Houston with 5,482 people/sq. mile [ranked #403 in the nation] compared to NYC at 26,403 [Manhattan in particular is 66,940 people/sq. mile]). Yes, we’re not comparing apples to the Big Apple when we compare Texas to New York. We aren’t clustered on top of each other like NYC. We have urban sprawl that spans areas the size of Connecticut. We have rural areas where cows outnumber humans by large margins. We are set up to better social distance, but that does require the assistance of those in our communities. Unfortunately, when you have people not playing by rules, they become the weak links in the chain.

While I support trying to minimize the impact the virus has on the economy, I also weigh the impact easing restrictions can have on public health. With an evolving virus, it’s hard to know what’s it’s going to do next. Sadly, testing includes a lag of several days, so any reactions to worsening outbreaks often come too late. Sure, I can stay home and avoid people in most settings, but I do need to get groceries and prescriptions at some point. Grocers and drug stores will have people there who have been exposed to others at other newly opened businesses. I can have items delivered or do curbside pick-up, but the people packing and dropping off items will have had exposure as well. It’s a better option than going into the store and dealing with numerous people who don’t care about the rules, who don’t adhere to 6 feet spacing, who don’t adhere to directional signs in stores, who don’t adhere to face masks (yes, face masks are not 100% effective, but if I’m wearing one properly and interacting with someone also wearing one properly, the effectiveness is significantly higher than if we weren’t wearing them).

As an introvert, I’m more than happy to sit back and wait to see how this plays out. To be honest, I’m really just wanting gyms to reopen in hopes all these idiots who haven’t worked out since the 1990s hopefully get off the streets when I’m trying work out. And I’m looking forward to when people have to start going back into their offices so it’s quieter in the neighborhood when I’m trying to get my runs in. Yes, I hope it plays out well and is able to save countless businesses as it’s rather sad to see so many small businesses announce they are closing permanently because they can’t survive with the restrictions. I’m quite certain this is the happiest I’ve ever been to not be a politician having to decide what to do in regards to opening or remaining under lock-down.