Let science lead, not ‘fiction that comes from White House,’ Fort Worth pastor says
It is unfortunate that the pursuit of dollars has been placed above the health of the people, Tarrant County Commissioner Roy Brooks and a group of black Fort Worth pastors who band together under the title of Faith and Community Leaders United said Thursday.
Gov. Greg Abbott’s order allowing some businesses and institutions to begin a soft opening on Friday is premature and not in the best interest of Tarrant County residents, according to William T. Glynn, Mount Olive Baptist Church pastor. Abbott’s plan is also not in the best interest of the people in the Fort Worth-area congregations that the pastors who were gathered represent, those pastors said.
Abbott on Monday said Texas businesses will reopen in three phases. On Friday, restaurants, movie theaters, malls, retail stores and more will be able to open doors to 25% occupancy. Abbott said his executive order supersedes local orders, which have often been stricter than his, effectively forcing the city of Fort Worth and Tarrant County to follow along.
“How many more folk will lose their lives, how many more people will have to undergo suffering and sorrow because of this decision you have made?” Glynn asked of Abbott.
The pastors and Brooks made these comments during a press conference Thursday while standing on the back parking lot of the Mount Olive Baptist Church. The re-opening flies in the face of advice from national and Tarrant County health care professionals, said Glynn, the Faith and Community Leaders United president.
“Let us be led by the facts of science and not the fiction that often comes from the White House,” Glynn said. “Until there is a vaccine or cure, we have to use common sense.”
Glynn urged people to continue to use what has worked so far — social distancing — and encouraged them to stay at home unless it was necessary for them to leave. Pastors have the moral responsibility to keep people safe, and Glynn encouraged pastors to continue the practice of electronic worship that many churches implemented weeks ago.
Brooks said that he agreed that this was not the time to relax stay-at-home policies. Brooks said he is aware of the pressures that Abbott faces and which perhaps led to his decision.
“But just because the governor says it’s OK doesn’t mean that this community needs to abandon its common sense and do things that are not in our best interest,” Brooks said. “Every disease pathology known to man manifests itself at a disproportionately high rate in communities of color than it does in the community at large.”
Brooks said Tarrant County Public Health Department officials announced Thursday that there were 97 new COVID-19 cases and seven more deaths.
Of the 68 total COVID-19 deaths in the county, there have been 32 white, 18 black, 15 Hispanic, two Asian/Pacific Islander and one American Indian resident. Of the total confirmed cases in the county, 29% have been Hispanic, 27% white, 17% black, 5% Asian/Pacific Islanders, 1% labeled as “other,” and 22% of the cases reported no race or ethnicity.
The evidence suggest it’s in the best interest of people of color to stay at home now and deny this virus the chance to spread, Brooks said.
The church is also not prepared to return to the recent past, and pastors were again encouraged to continue to hold services online, said Ken Jones, Como First Baptist Church pastor. When there is adequate testing, and other criteria are met, then in-person services can return, Jones said.
“We are not healthy enough to go back to business as usual,” Jones said.
These pastors and Brooks are not the only people concerned by Abbott’s roll-out of a gradual re-opening of the Texas economy on Friday.
During a Fort Worth City Council meeting Wednesday when Abbott’s plan was discussed, City Councilwomen Kelly Allen Gray and Gyna Bivens voted against a similar measure passed by the Fort Worth council in a tangible example of their lack of support.
“I want to applaud the small businesses, the libraries, the museums and also the people who have said we are not reopening under these guidelines because there is not a safe way for us to protect our patrons,” Gray said.
Many health professionals are also warning that a May 1 economic reboot is premature. Scientists almost never use the word inevitable, yet that’s the word Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, reportedly used when predicting a second wave of respiratory infections, coronavirus and flu, occurring in the United States in late 2020.
Signs that some regions of the world were having to backtrack because of prematurely eased restrictions have been reported in Asia, while areas in some continents may be on their way to becoming hot spots.
Abbott is taking a risk by relaxing the current efforts to curb the coronavirus, said Kyev Tatum, New Rose Missionary Baptist Church pastor. But no one is taking responsibility for Abbott’s decision if he is wrong, Tatum said. The people in communities of color were already at a health care disadvantage when the pandemic first reached the United States, Tatum said.
According to researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, the 76104 ZIP code in Fort Worth — which has a predominantly black population — has the lowest life expectancy in Texas.
“Highest infant mortality, lowest life expectancy, highest asthma for our children, we have chronic diabetes, chronic heart disease, chronic liver and kidney disease,” Tatum said. “In 76104, and extended through 105, 119, 112, 107, those are the hot spots (for low life expectancies in Texas), and the governor has not given us anything specifically to hit those hot spots.”
Also, there is not enough health care testing in communities of color in Tarrant County, Tatum said.
“You can’t just talk to business leaders in the community and forget the very people that it’s going to impact the most,” Tatum said.
