Brownsville leaders reflect on one year of virus

Mar. 7—March marks a year since the first reported cases of COVID-19 in our community. Just a few weeks before, while the cases were soaring in other places such as Italy, things in Brownsville seemed normal with Charro Days, the International Grand Parade and the first edition of Crossroads Festival. All events that had to be cancelled this year due to the pandemic.

Brownsville Fire Chief Jarrett Sheldon said since the beginning of the reported cases in Brownsville, the department has been on the forefront of the pandemic with every member of the department, and of the city, undergoing great physical and mental stress. He said the department learned to overcome the challenges of this "extraordinary" year by modifying the way they operate completely and educating the public.

"Even as the leader of the fire department, I've empowered and challenged every member to become a leader as well. This has allowed an accelerated innovation in developing, analyzing and redeveloping our COVID response plan. So, it was a constant change as we got more and more information throughout the year. It really took the whole team, the whole fire department. All the city members and directors and leadership, really come together to create effective plans that we utilize," he said.

"To really have the continuity of operations, we never lost fire services, we never lost EMS services. A lot of services continued throughout the whole year, even through the unknown. That really speaks volumes of our most vital asset, which is our people, our personnel within our city and within our fire department."

As of press time Thursday, officials said there has been 19,752 COVID-19 positive cases in the city and 750 deaths.

With the drive-thru testing site by the City of Brownsville up and running just a few weeks after the first reported cases, it could be said that it is one of the main factors why the city was not as affected by the pandemic when compared to other border cities such as El Paso, which as of press time has more than 124,000 positive reported cases.

"Absolutely. When we saw our first case pop up, I challenged our staff to get a drive thru testing facility up and running as quickly as possible and they did an amazing job. It was in operation within days," Brownsville Mayor Trey Mendez said when asked on the importance of the drive-thru testing and its impact.

"The city prioritized the health of our residents and was willing to undertake the expense of running the testing site. We were the first city in the valley to do it and continue to do it."

Health Director Art Rodriguez said the biggest challenge this year has been trying to communicate with the residents when there are other messages out such as those by the state. This week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced masks will no longer be mandatory in the state and businesses can open to 100 percent capacity. The governor also gave the authority to cities to shut down businesses to 50 percent if the positivity rate goes above 15 percent of hospital capacity for seven consecutive days.

"Like currently right now, the message of the no masks. Our challenge continuously has been to communicate the message to the grassroots, to our local citizens and not confuse them too much," Rodriguez said.

"The next question is going to be 'the governor said I don't have to wear a mask, why should I?' and then I have to go and tell the story of 'well, the governor also said you need to be responsible and make your own decisions' so, the Health Department will try and educate our citizens that we still have a lot of people in hospitals."

"If we go above a positivity rate about 15% for seven days, the governor also gave us the authority to shut down the businesses by 50 percent. We got to tell the whole story so that our population can understand the whole that's going on, not just the part that's making the headlines."

About the governor's order, Chief Sheldon said he would have liked more time for that decision until more vaccines are available. He said the city is trying to alleviate the stress on the healthcare system and even though they are on a better point, they're not at a point where people can't stop wearing masks and go back to normal.

"It really goes back, that self-responsibility now," he said. "At first people didn't believe in masks, they didn't understand the science behind it. Now, the messaging is out there and we just hope people continue to wear their masks and know that the science behind that, it does prevent the spread of COVID. We just hope and pray that people continue that message and take it upon themselves to continue wearing masks, social distancing, practicing good hygiene. ... These are all measures that have become part of our life now, and I don't see that going away anytime soon."

Rodriguez said the most important part during this year has been being able to work with the hospitals so that the healthcare system doesn't collapse. He said for the past year, the city has been in regular meetings with the local hospitals to see what their situation is and that at the end of the day, as the Health Department, they can't let the healthcare system collapse.

Rodriguez also mentioned that Brownsville has had four times the death rate when compared to other parts of the country due to a high number of residents being overweight and diabetic. He said things could have been worse if the city would not have been as proactive.

"We need to preserve doctors and nurses the best we can so that they don't leave the area. You can replace a nurse or doctor as easy as you can with other scope of work," he said.

"Another part is that we've realized that many of our individuals in Brownsville are already diabetic or overweight, so we had four times the death rate that other parts had. And it could have been worse had we not been so proactive. When you look at Laredo, El Paso, and other border cities, the impact they've had, Brownsville could have been the same story, but the collective work that we've done with the Fire Department and the partnership for the vaccines, with communications and partnerships to communicate and then with the hospitals to learn and get together every week.

"Even with the county and to become vaccine hub providers, all those little steps collectively have added up the last year, that we have managed through the pandemic in a way that I feel the citizens still feel safe, they still look at us as the subject matter experts and I think that's very important."

When it comes to the future, Mendez said 2021 is looking very positive due to the new presidential administration effectively rolling out more than 30% more vaccines in just a couple of months. He also said Brownsville is resilient and does the best to take care of its family.

"Hopefully, more Americans are able to receive the vaccine and we can begin to move on as a society. While I don't expect things to get back to normal until perhaps later this year, we have already learned so much about ourselves and our community. I'm looking forward to bigger and better things in 2022, including seeing the return of events that were cancelled this year," he said.

"Our community is resilient. We do our best to take care of our family, our friends and our neighbors. It is refreshing to see our residents come together for the greater good. I have also seen a rise in outdoor activity and family time, which is the result of reevaluating our priorities."