It’s a not-so-funny joke that practically wrote itself. As the story goes Nero, Rome’s emperor back in 64 A.D. “fiddled while Rome burned.” Over the weekend people couldn’t help but make comparisons to Texas Governor Greg Abbott. As COVID cases in Texas surge, Abbott didn’t seem to have a care in the world as he attended a political event where, yes, he played the fiddle.
The Texas Tribune reports, “As cases and hospitalizations are reaching heights not seen since February, Abbott’s pandemic playbook in recent weeks has largely focused on blocking local mandates and committing to protecting the rights of the unvaccinated.”
The New York Times quotes, Lauren Ancel Meyers, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and the director of the university’s Covid-19 model consortium, “Over the last few weeks, Texas has been in the leading edge of the resurgence.” The newspaper reports that there are “12,000 new cases a day on average, a 134 percent increase within the last two weeks, and nearly 8,000 hospitalizations.” Abbott is apparently taking a hands-off approach. According to a statement “Governor Abbott has been clear that we must rely on personal responsibility, not government mandates. Every Texan has a right to choose for themselves and their children whether they will wear masks, open their businesses, or get vaccinated.”