The Texas Republican Party seems intent on ignoring public health warnings, science and plain old common sense.
Even though coronavirus cases in Houston are continuing to spiral upward, straining hospital capacity and sickening nearly 53,000 people in our region, the GOP is going ahead with plans to bring more than 6,000 people to the George R. Brown Convention Center for its annual convention.
What’s more, the executive committee last week voted down an amendment requiring face coverings, making it unclear if attendees will follow Gov. Greg Abbott’s order requiring Texans to wear masks in most public settings.
That’s just foolhardy — and could aggravate the COVID-19 spike that is already threatening to overwhelm the city’s ICUs and lead to more deaths.
If Abbott and GOP leaders refuse to do the right thing, then others need to step up.
Sponsors should all follow the lead of the Texas Medical Association, a nonprofit medical society of about 53,000 physicians and students, and the Texas Craft Brewers Guild, which both pulled sponsorships after organizers voted to go ahead with an in-person convention.
“With or without masks, an indoor gathering of thousands of people from all around the state in a city with tens of thousands of active COVID-19 cases poses a significant health risk to convention-goers, convention workers, health care workers,” medical association President Diana Fite said in a statement.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is no doubt in a tough spot here. If we were talking about the Houston Tattoo Arts Convention or the annual Quilt Festival that draws thousands, he’d have an easier time ordering them canceled if organizers refused to do it first — which, incidentally, has not been a problem with any other convention. They’ve all reportedly done the right thing and canceled or postponed.
But a Democrat canceling the political convention of another party is fraught. The bad optics could easily be misconstrued as a Russian-style plot to undermine Republican power and meddle with Texas elections. That’s all we need in this polarized political tinderbox of a society.
Still, saving lives should come before worries about bad optics, and even before valid concerns about protecting political speech and democratic process. Abbott, a Republican, should really be the one stepping up and persuading his fellow partisans to move the convention online.
But if he’s not going to show that leadership, Turner must.
The mayor must go beyond ordering health inspectors to enforce public health guidelines and “strongly encouraging” the state GOP to cancel the July 16-18 in-person gathering.
In a letter to GOP leaders, Turner sent a list of safeguards required by the Houston Health Department and noted that “even if all the safeguards are followed, there will still be avoidable risk to attendees, presenters and support staff. The best way to minimize risk is to hold a virtual convention.”
As the city’s top elected official, Turner must put the health of his constituents and all Houston-area residents first, and order the cancellation of the in-person convention.
Turner could be thrust into a nasty partisan battle, but he must be willing to risk the fallout.
These are not ordinary times. Political concerns must take a back seat to public health.
In a statement, Texas GOP chairman James Dickey argued that a state convention is “a fundamental exercise of the freedom to peaceably assemble and petition the government for redress” and is taking “every precaution to ensure it is done safely.”
But those precautions, which include thermal temperature scans of attendees and hand sanitizer stations, are not enough to guarantee that attendees and the people they come into contact with will be safe.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention categorizes large gatherings where it is difficult to maintain a social distance of 6 feet and where attendees travel from outside local areas as “highest risk.” The CDC also notes that “the higher the level of community transmission in the area that the gathering is being held, the higher the risk of COVID-19 spreading during a gathering.”
That should serve as a flashing red light for the Texas GOP and local officials.
Holding an in-person convention when a pandemic is raging out of control — Abbott himself warned on Sunday that Texas will be facing “greater fatalities” from COVID-19 — is reckless.
The in-person convention should be canceled and moved online. That’s what Texas Democrats did, without any apparent disruption to their fundamental exercise of freedom. Since state Republican leaders don’t seem willing to take that step, Turner must.
