In Texas-Mexico Border Towns, COVID-19 Has Had an Unconscionably High Death Toll

Alfredo “Freddy” Valles was an accomplished trumpeter and a beloved music teacher for nearly four decades at one of the poorest middle schools in El Paso, Texas. He was known for buying his students shoes and bow ties for their band concerts, his effortlessly positive demeanor and his suave personal style—“he looked like he stepped out of a different era, the 1950s,” says his niece, Ruby Montana. While Valles was singular in life, his death at age 60 in February 2021 was part of a devastating statistic: He was one of thousands of deaths in Texas border counties—where coronavirus mortality rates far outpaced state and national averages. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] In the state’s border communities, including El Paso, people not only died of COVID-19 at significantly higher rates than elsewhere, but people under age 65 were also more likely to die, according to a KHN-El Paso Matters analysis of COVID-19 death data through January. More than 7,700 people died of COVID-19 in the border area through January. In Texas, COVID-19 death rates for border residents younger than 65 were nearly three times the national average for that age group and more than twice the state average. And those ages 18-49 were nearly four times more likely to die than those in the same age range across the U.S. “This was like a perfect storm,” says Heide Castañeda, an anthropology professor at the University of South Florida who ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news