IS COVID-19 VACCINE GIVEN OUT UNDER COMPADRE SYSTEM? CITY DOLES OUT VOUCHERS; EACH COUNTY. COMISH GOT 750

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Has the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine become an exercise in City of Brownsville and Cameron County politics?

As thousands line for a limited supply of vouchers for COVID-19 vaccines, there have been confirmed reports that some of them might have been distributed based on favoritism and to political supporters. 

And while thousands of elderly (65 and over) and people with underlying conditions form lines to try to get a voucher for the limited number of vaccines, reports abound of others who didn't have to wait in line but got theirs through political connections.

Those include the congregation of a Brownsville Baptist church where the the pastor is a known political operative (politiquero) , a local blogger who got a phone call from a county commissioner, and Priscilla Escobedo, the wife of Jaime Escobedo, of American Surveillance, a security firm vendor.

This has led religious leaders of other churches in Brownsville wondering how Treviño chose Iglesia Bautista West Brownsville as a recipient of 100 vouchers for the vaccine. 

"Why weren't other churches given voucher, too?," asked a prominent Catholic Church activist. "People in Cameron Park, the county's largest colonia, are dying and we don't get invited to share in the vaccine vouchers."

In the Facebook post where Escobedo shows of her voucher, it's obvious she is not over 65 and we wouldn't know if she has an underlying condition, but it doesn't appear to be so. 

And in the case of Jerry McHale, a retired school teacher and local blogger, he didn't even have to wait in line or show he is over 65. He has told numerous acquaintances that Pct. 2 Commissioner Joey Lopez called him to offer him – a la Eddie Lucio – a voucher for a vaccine so he wouldn't have to wait in line like everybody else. 

In a podcast run by Erasmo Castro, Lopez said he and every commissioner had been given discretion to hand out 750 vouchers and had only day to choose who to give them to for distribution. He mentioned several churches, including Iglesia Bautista West Brownsville, St. Mary's, San Pedro, and Good Shepherd, and said churches in specific precincts could contact their commissioner, in Castro's case, Pct. 1 commissioner Sofia Benavides. 

 So if you happen to be an elderly atheist and not a church member in favor with the priest or minister of a chosen church you're out of luck? And does that mean we'll be subject to more of Jerry's pandering prose on his blog on the Lopez's behalf from now on? After all, he might owe Joey his very life.

It was bad enough that Senator Eddie Lucio said he was invited in Hidalgo County by a doctor and claimed that the vaccine would have to be thrown away if he didn't take it, and that City of Brownsville commissioner Rose Gowen – a gynecologist – was also among the first in line to get the precious vaccine. 

Lucio can claim he is over 65, Gowen because she is a doctor, and as public officials can claim they are "essential" individuals. But even if they are, getting ahead of the line of people needing it for their survival doesn't look good.

Brownsville Mayor Trey Mendez said he had been offered a city voucher and turned it down and denied reports he had acquired one but said his mother had received the vaccine. But he said he was aware of some vouchers being distributed to local residents by the county with no apparent regard for the recommended protocols. He would not elaborate.

But regardless of where the commissioners distributed the vaccine, Cameron County Health Department workers administered the injections. 

Those vaccines could have saved the life of elderly residents or of people with underlying medical conditions. It's called leading by example, not "I got mine, and how you manage to get it is your problem, not mine."

  

As it is,  the vaccine distributions across Cameron County has raised concerns among residents waiting hours in line.

“They were allowing all of these cars to get in front of us since we had been there since 4 am,” said Daniela Ramos, a resident from La Feria who said she waited more than 9 hours during a vaccine clinic in Los Fresnos.

Ramos told KVEO that she was accompanying her elderly mother and father who are in need of the vaccine but said she was frustrated when she saw people with vouchers getting in front of the line. Especially when the event was supposed to be on a first come first serve basis. However, as was the case of the distribution in Brownsville, cou hers were distributed by some office holders to select people who may not have met the eligibility protocols.

“The Los Fresnos police department started allowing cars that had vouchers from yesterday come and cut in line in front of about 200 cars which were in my line,” said Ramos.

The Cameron County Emergency Management Department said the vouchers were given on a first come first serve basis.

Both the apparent de facto political protocol in the distribution of vaccines and the lax enforcement of the COVID-19 order closing bars until February 5 and reducing the capacity limits of restaurants to 50 percent gives people room for thinking the efforts have been lackadaisical and fraught with favoritism.

Notice, for example, the advertisement for the Ibissa bar/lounge  opening scheduled for January 29, almost a week before the February 5 bar opening in the judge's last order. 

And as everyone knows, bars are still packed on weekends and dancing – sans mask or social distancing – is the norm. At the last COVID-19 press conference Treviño threatened to post film of bars and dance halls that were open in in violation of all the safety protocols in his latest amended order. He did not,

"Some people are making it a political issue," Treviño said in the last COVID-19 press conference. "I get reports and it causes some frictions between certain groups. I wish I didn't have to make any decisions..."

Treviño may not like it, but his decision allowing each county commissioner to distribute 750 vouchers each at their "discretion" he gives them the power of life and death over their constituents.

And by basing the distribution of the vouchers to specific religious congregations and politically positioned recipients, the distribution of vaccines has certainly become a political hot potato.