Bibliography

Brooks, B. (2021, June 25). Not taking it: Remote West Texas COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy plain to see. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/not-taking-it-remote-west-texas-covid-19-vaccine-hesitancy-plain-see-2021-06-25/.

Clark, C. (2021, June 24). Here's What You Should Know About The Delta Variant. Texas A&M Today. https://today.tamu.edu/2021/06/24/heres-what-you-should-know-about-the-delta-variant/.

Falcon, H. (2021, April 30). New Texas COVID-19 variant resistant to antibodies, researchers say. KXAN Austin. https://www.kxan.com/news/coronavirus/new-texas-covid-19-variant-resistant-to-antibodies-researchers-say/.

Huber, C. (2021, April 6). Texas Reports Fewer Than 1,000 New COVID-19 Cases. https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/austin/news/2021/04/06/texas-reports-fewer-than-a-1-000-new-covid-19-cases-for-first-time-since-last-summer.

Novak, A., Ferman, M., & Cai, M. (2020, April 17). Texas unemployment rate: How coronavirus impacted the economy. The Texas Tribune. https://apps.texastribune.org/features/2020/texas-unemployment/?_ga=2.245685005.881113093.1624734307-888657928.1623447577.

Staff, T. T. (2020, April 14). Coronavirus in Texas: 2,540,318 confirmed cases and 51,130 deaths. The Texas Tribune. https://apps.texastribune.org/features/2020/texas-coronavirus-cases-map/?_ga=2.245685005.881113093.1624734307-888657928.1623447577.

Texas A&M University Research Communications and Public Relations. (2021, April 21). Texas A&M Lab Identifies New COVID-19 Variant; Genome Suggests Potential Resistance To Antibodies. Texas A&M Today. https://today.tamu.edu/2021/04/19/texas-a-genome-suggests-potential-resistance-to-antibodies/.

California Covid Variant In Texas Student

 The covid variant found—named "BV-1"— is related to the UK variant. The Texas A&M student had mild flu-like symptoms for about a month, and was tested 3 times before testing negative, indicating the variant possibly causes longer lasting effects for people in the ages of 18-24. This variant was found in April 2021.

Now in June, there's another highly contagious Delta variant. The variant was first detected in India, and a similar one is circulating around Texas and Mexico with the same mutation. Texas A&M virologist Ben Neuman hypothesized that the Delta variant is more transmissible than the Alpha variant, which was the first strain that BV-1 mutated from in the UK. Neuman explains that in order for the virus to survive, it has to change its structure slightly so it can adapt to our bodies and what preventative measures we take like vaccines and social distancing.

Above is a picture of the isolated Delta variant from a US patient from cell surfaces in a lab. Image captured and colorized at NIAID’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) in Hamilton, Montana. (Clark 2021).

The Impact On The Texas Economy

As with most of the world and the United States, the unemployment rate skyrocketed in April at the beginning of the pandemic. Since then, the unemployment rate has been steadily declining. 

Despite all this, Governor Greg Abbott opted the state out of federal aid, and hundreds of thousands of unemployed Texans will lose government assistance from two federal programs.

Citizens all over Texas also faced unemployment at different rates. South Texans were hit the worst at the start of the pandemic, and Starr County recorded the highest unemployment rate out of them all 21.7%. Oil fields (especially those in South Texas) were what seemed to be hit the hardest.

Less Than Half of Texans Fully Vaccinated

 As of June 23, about 47% of the Texas population has received at least one dose of the vaccine, and 40% are now fully vaccinated. Anyone over the age of 12 is able to get the vaccine in Texas. 

Currently data on the state's vaccination progress faces demographic, geographic, and data challenges. Demographically, the state has a higher-than-average population of young children under the age of 12. Geographically, many of the state's population, about a third, lives in rural areas. Distribution of vaccines to rural areas is difficult, and often many healthcare workers have had to drive round trips to large cities to get vaccine doses. Lastly the data collection system is slow and it takes days at a time for administered doses to be reported publicly.

West Texas Vaccine Rates Dropped Suddenly

Above, Emily Herrera poses outside her office at the Cochran Memorial Hospital in Morton, Texas, a city located in West Texas where vaccine rates have suddenly dropped.

 Healthcare workers in West Texas were driving over 800 miles round trip to get vaccines in Austin to distribute to those in rural areas. Many people were signing up to get vaccinated and then in April the calls stopped coming. This was around the time Biden missed his goal of 70% of Americans being vaccinated. There's not clear cut reason as to why people stopped getting vaccinated, however there are some factors that give some insight. 

According to Brooks (2021), people who make less money are less likely to get vaccinated, and people of color are also less likely to get vaccinated. A lot of this has to do with less resources being available to people in poverty and people of color. Time is also a factor: not many people have the time, when working between multiple jobs or having to commute to vaccination sights.

There's also the groups of people that either think the pandemic is a hoax, or that the vaccine was made too fast. Regardless, Texas' partial vaccine population is below the average, 53.7% versus the national 65.7%.