Texas Just Hit 10,000 COVID Deaths, and It's 'Flying Blind'
Source: Daily Beast
Last week, Texas hit the grim milestone of 10,000 COVID-19 deaths.
That is, it did if you went by local news outlets and the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The Texas Department of State Health Services didn’t report a similar figure until around 5 p.m. Eastern time on Monday.
That small, seemingly modest inconsistency might be easily brushed off—especially in the context of divergent COVID-19 stats across the country—if it weren’t for the fact that the state has endured weeks of data woes, sowing distrust across Texas. State officials have blamed coding errors, system upgrades, backlogs, changes in methodology, and closures of testing centers for a recent surge of red flags in its coronavirus stats.
Regardless of the cause, the deluge of questions about figures ranging from infection rates to total deaths have made it difficult to get a clear picture of what’s happening in the virus-ravaged state, public health experts told The Daily Beast. That would be concerning in its own right, but it’s especially glaring given the state is using that data to make decisions about reopening schools and other facilities as summer turns to fall.
Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/texas-just-hit-10000-covid-deaths-and-its-flying-blind
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