TOO LATE TO PLUG ALL THE LEAKS IN THE COVID-19 DIKE

By Juan Montoya

Like Hans Brinker, the Dutch boy who is overwhelmed by cracks in the bursting dike, local public officials at all levels have been besieged as the number of COVID-19 positive cases climb and another node of infection appears even as they are stretching their resources to plug one up.

Whether it was the first travel-related custer in Rancho Viejo that spread through relations to South Padre Island and Matamoros, to the burgeoning number now being discovered in rest homes and rehab centers for  the elderly, the meager resources of the public first responders and lack of preparation for such a contingency at every level has become painfully apparent.

On Thursday, Texas reported 1,000 new cases in one day as the contagion mushrooms and peaks across the national landscape. Nearly 1,000 a day are dying daily in New York state. Locally, we know of three deaths. Given, the virus' explosion, we should expect more.

Even those who thought that the Rio Grande Valley provided a shelter unconnected to the viral prairie fire burning across the continent and the world, it has proven a rude awakening that we are, indeed, connected to the rest of the world, warts and all.

And where do we stand now?

So far, there have been 118 known cases in Cameron County and no one believes that the contagion has peaked. Nodes of infection have been found carried from one locale to another by medical workers, such as those from the nursing homes at Veranda and Atrium where some staff members worked at both.

Visitors, relatives, etc who came into contact with the workers or surfaces they had touched did the rest.

Every governmental entity, from the State of Texas, Cameron County, the City of Brownsville. an all the other communities in the four-county area (Cameron, Hidalgo, Willacy, Starr) saw the explosion of the virus explode in their face. School districts followed, and the schools were closed.

Not one of the elected officials who won his or her popularity contest thought his duties would include battling an unseen killer, or to make life-and-death decisions that would affect their fellow residents immediately. This challenge started with President Trump and all across the spectrum to local school board members.

Their mission has suddenly changed. It's no longer about city ordinances or orders, county edicts, state declarations, or school district missions and turf. It's about everyone's survival. We either hang together, or hang separately. Brownsville - and the RGV - are small communities with a lot of people in them. In time, someone we know will be touched by this lethal bug. That's a terrible prospect.

This was an unforeseen event and no contingencies were set in pace or were contemplated.

Suddenly, the mission of the schools to educate (and feed) children has run cross-purposes with the city, county and state's social isolation orders. Without a precedent in place on dealing with a threat that cuts across jurisdictions, they have (predictably) reverted to the worn and tried strategy of protecting their turf while valuable time is lost as the contagion explodes and children go hungry.

What to do?

At first it was a call for precaution, then a curfew, and as the numbers rose, shelter in place, travel restrictions, and stay at home. Now it has come to the point where law enforcement bodies from all these entities are on the roads enforcing the orders that people can only be outside if they can justify being out on essential endeavors.

That is a very vague term. What is essential to one - a cup of gourmet coffee or designer pizza - may not seem essential to another who merely want to go to the store and buy a bag of chicken leg quarters legs to tide them over for a week at home, a bottle of aspirin, or a pack of toilet paper, if any is left.

People are out of work, and in a service economy where a large number of people in Cameron County and South Texas are employed, the stage is set for a season of misery. What do people do when there is no income for the very survival of your household? If your family was in need, would you stay at home and cross your arms as the rent becomes due, the larder is getting empty and someone gets sick?


There have been 17 million applications or unemployment benefits in the United States in the last two weeks. The computer systems to file for unemployment benefits have crashed in several states  and they're handing out paper applications. It will be weeks before the states start sending out benefits. That's bad enough. But what do those without benefits do?

And whether you are satisfied or not with the reality that a large number of undocumented people who are our fellow residents work at the lowest-paid jobs here (restaurants, bars, custodial), the fact is, their children attend our schools, they are part of our economy, and the virus does not discriminate based on socioeconomic status. This is a border, there is no room for chauvinism or ethnocentrism here in the face of a common threat.

How are we doing?

I can't imagine but that there is a certain disappointment to learn that a City of Brownsville worker at City Plaza tested positive for the virus. How many fellow workers and members of the public walked into that lobby and may have come n contact with the person, or the surfaces he or she touched then took it back home?

After all, City Plaza is where the city's health department is located.

Or how about the fact that three Cameron County Health Department workers also were detected to be positive for COVID-19? These, after all, are our soldiers in the battle against COVID-19 and they have been seriously compromised. The barricades have been breached.

Where was the chink in the armor of our city and county health departments? Our first responders also lack the appropriate PPE to attend to their calls for assistance. Suddenly, the virus is not a story on national television, or is only present in sin-filled New York and debauched California. It is here and it has revealed itself with a vengeance we never expected.

Shut up in our homes, we watch and wait in helpless rage for the monster to move on, and find ourselves unable to do anything but heed the call of our elected leaders to stay put as they flail about to combat its spread.

The little Dutch boy has all his hands and feet occupied plugging holes and another crack has just appeared above him. What will he do?