Special to El Rrun-Rrun
Whichever way you cut it or slice it, death stalks Brownsville, and – by extension – Cameron County.
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Even as the county reports that the total death count in the county which includes all communities and municipalities has only reached 216 in the four months since the first COVID-19 death was recorded on April 7, the city death records belie that assertion.
As can be plainly seen in the death records data released by Mayor Trey Mendez, the city averaged about 98 deaths (call it 100) in the first five months of 2020, and recorded a slight increase of 45 in June (145).
But in July, the city's monthly average more than doubled to 220 with another 177 deaths pending confirmation that they were caused by the virus. What else could it be?
The suspected 342 deaths above the monthly average in June and July point to the presence of the COVID-19 fatalities that continue to bedevil county statisticians at the Cameron County Health Department.
We have previously called for some other governmental entity to take over the collection of COVID-19 data to remove the suspicion that Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño and medical director Dr. Jaime Castillo may be fudging the numbers to paint a rosier picture that hides the real truth from county residents.
Our pleas have been heard as the state realizes that the county has lagged far behind in reporting the effects of the virus on vital statistics, especially COVID-19 related deaths. Texas just recently added 5,000 under reported virus deaths that had been delayed in postings on its statewide data base.
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If Brownsville's deaths data records an additional 340 COVID-19 suspected deaths in the city alone, how can the county say with a straight face that the number of virus deaths in the entire county that includes all other municipalities (that includes Harlingen, San Benito, Los Fresnos, and Port Isabel) has only totaled 219 since April?
The truth is all around us. By now, all of us have heard of family, relatives, friends, and friends of friends, who have succumbed to the disease or have been stricken, are hospitalized, or are on their way back to health through a painful recovery.
Treviño and the county's medical administrators needs to catch up to the truth or they will be left behind in the ditch along with their credibility.
Whichever way you cut it or slice it, death stalks Brownsville, and – by extension – Cameron County.
Even as the county reports that the total death count in the county which includes all communities and municipalities has only reached 216 in the four months since the first COVID-19 death was recorded on April 7, the city death records belie that assertion.As can be plainly seen in the death records data released by Mayor Trey Mendez, the city averaged about 98 deaths (call it 100) in the first five months of 2020, and recorded a slight increase of 45 in June (145).
But in July, the city's monthly average more than doubled to 220 with another 177 deaths pending confirmation that they were caused by the virus. What else could it be?
The suspected 342 deaths above the monthly average in June and July point to the presence of the COVID-19 fatalities that continue to bedevil county statisticians at the Cameron County Health Department.
We have previously called for some other governmental entity to take over the collection of COVID-19 data to remove the suspicion that Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño and medical director Dr. Jaime Castillo may be fudging the numbers to paint a rosier picture that hides the real truth from county residents.
Our pleas have been heard as the state realizes that the county has lagged far behind in reporting the effects of the virus on vital statistics, especially COVID-19 related deaths. Texas just recently added 5,000 under reported virus deaths that had been delayed in postings on its statewide data base.
If Brownsville's deaths data records an additional 340 COVID-19 suspected deaths in the city alone, how can the county say with a straight face that the number of virus deaths in the entire county that includes all other municipalities (that includes Harlingen, San Benito, Los Fresnos, and Port Isabel) has only totaled 219 since April?
The truth is all around us. By now, all of us have heard of family, relatives, friends, and friends of friends, who have succumbed to the disease or have been stricken, are hospitalized, or are on their way back to health through a painful recovery.
Treviño and the county's medical administrators needs to catch up to the truth or they will be left behind in the ditch along with their credibility.