When you coming back?

[Texas Aggie]

Texas opened everything and you have had some of the highest numbers of cases in recent history.

I would encourage a little research before making assertions that aren't accurate, or at least incomplete or misleading.

First, Texas never really closed. That's a myth. Texas schools, restaurants (dine in), hair salons, and a few other similar places were closed in March by the Gov. but everything else was on a county by county basis. The LARGER counties did, for the most part, close dining in restaurants but frankly, little else. Walmart, Home Depot, etc. was still open and there was never any mask requirement. Hell, I was of the first persons that I saw actually wear a mask in Home Depot some time in late March only because there are a ton of people in there. The important thing to keep in mind here is that the vast majority of the state outside of the metro areas, with the exception of schools, barbers, and restaurants, behaved almost exactly as they did in January, February, and last year. Admittedly that's not tens of millions of people, but it isn't a small number either. Think Lubbock, Amarillo, Temple/Belton, San Angelo, Abilene, Tyler, Sherman/Denison, etc. At least half a million in population there. Maybe more, and that's just off the top of my head right now. To this day, almost all these areas have minimal numbers. Populated areas like Collin County, north of Dallas (cities of Plano, Frisco, McKinney), did not have any local restrictions in March and April and have not had elevated rates of infection, even today.

Second, Texas "opened" all but the schools in early May. Schools, of course, were closed, but there was still no firm mask requirement -- at least not state wide -- it was county by county. We went most of or all of May without any real spike in cases. On May 1, Texas had 29K cases; on May 31, it was 64K. Yes, that's doubled, but it is FAR less than the rate of growth in April where it went up 7 and a half fold!

Third, the case numbers didn't spike until the middle of June, well after "opening" (to the extent there was one) would have affected anything was done. Other factors, which I won't get into, have been looked into but can't be proven. But this disease doesn't have a 5 or 6 week incubation period. Based on when the spike started to occur, it appears the transmissions started accelerating around the very end of May until the first of June. You figure that out for yourself, but I ask you to use facts, data, and logic and not to blindly believe everything you hear in the media. Look at the actual numbers, not the rhetoric spouted off.

Fourth, the Texas numbers, even today, aren't THAT bad. Out of 2.9 million total tests, there are ONLY 282K total cases (less than half are active), and only 3432 deaths. Don't misunderstand: ONE death is tragic and 3432 is horrific. But New York had AT LEAST 18700 CONFIRMED deaths. That was with ONE MILLION FEWER people tested! So, other than deaths, we don't really even know what the New York REAL numbers are or would be.

Finally, there were at least 7 states that never "closed" by any definition. The numbers there (Arkansas, Utah, the Dakotas, Iowa, Nebraska, and Wyoming) never seemed to spike. Not exactly huge population centers, but Salt Lake, Little Rock, and Lincoln aren't holes in the ground and these people go other places (heck, they have to!).

So no, they aren't the "highest" numbers because New York death numbers blow Texas' away, and due to testing, we don't know what the real NY numbers are. Testing procedures are better now than they were in May; MUCH better than they were in March. There are a lot of rumors out there about tests and positives, but I won't get into that. Taking all these numbers at face value is more than sufficient for my point: "opening" up (however you want to define it) had NOTHING to do with the spike of cases, to the extent there is one.

Data source for Texas: https://txdshs.maps.arcgis.com/apps/...01e8b9cafc8b83

Data source for NY: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/covid/covid-19-data.page