Healthcare is Turning Texas Blue

COVID shot mandates started in Texas for a reason.

By Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, MD, Board Certified in ENT and Sleep Medicine

Of all the controversies during the pandemic, forcing working citizens to choose between their right to bodily autonomy and staying employed was the most egregious, and it all started in Houston, Texas. In May 2021, three months before Biden announced federal employees would be required to get the COVID shots, Houston Methodist Hospital proudly declared it was setting a precedent - “leading medicine” as they like to say - and mandating COVID shots for all of its employees. At the time, these shots were only under EUA status and had been on the market for less than four months. In June of 2021, the hospital fired 153 employees who refused to comply.

I had many patients confide in me their reluctance to abide by the mandates, voicing concerns about the safety of these new modified mRNA shots. Because my clinic was doing a lot of testing, I saw the breakthrough cases and even reached out to an administrator at Houston Methodist, asking him if he was seeing what I was seeing. My concerns were dismissed.

Ignored by Methodist, I started speaking out on Twitter, daring to tweet “Vaccine mandates are wrong.” In retaliation, Houston Methodist suspended my privileges and defamed me online, demonstrating to other physicians the dire consequences of challenging their dogma. In a recent interview, Shannon Joy asked me how is it that a physician in the seemingly red state of Texas is undergoing the kind of persecution I’ve experienced; I answered, “Texas is not as ‘red’ as you think.” I believe healthcare is slowly changing the political landscape of our state, and COVID shot mandates started in Texas for a reason.

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Texas Population Boom

I live in Harris County, the most populous county in Texas, the 3rd most populous county in the nation, and home to the largest medical complex in the world - the Texas Medical Center (TMC). The TMC hosts 61 hospitals, including the world’s largest children’s hospital (Texas Children’s Hospital) and the world’s largest cancer hospital (MD Anderson.) I’ve wondered what sort of impact this gigantic system has on Texas state politics and decided to dig into the numbers.

Source: https://www.apmresearchlab.org/blog/unequal-counties

Over the last 10 years, Texas’ population has surged. Austin’s population has grown 33%, Dallas and Houston have each grown 20%. Recent figures show from 2021 to 2022, hundreds of thousands of people fled the blue cities of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago to settle in Houston and Dallas.

And where are these people working? In 2022, the top employment sector in Texas was healthcare. Presently, the top position advertised online in Texas is for Registered Nurses.

Healthcare is the number one source of employment growth in the region. At the current growth rate, the area expects to see 247,000 direct jobs added to the healthcare sector from 2021 to 2038. When indirect and induced jobs are included, the total is 493,000, representing a 68 percent increase. [Source: Greater Houston Partnership]

Houston’s Texas Medical Center is the world’s largest medical complex by several measures: number of hospitals, number of physicians, square footage and patient volume. The TMC employs over 106,000 people, hosts 10 million patient encounters annually, and has a gross domestic product of US$25 billion. Overall, the healthcare industry contributes over $105 billion to Texas’ GDP.

Over the past 10 years, Texas grew its physician workforce at a faster rate than the state’s population; the total number of physicians grew at 2.5 times the population rate. Every year, nearly 2500 first year residents enter Texas to work in teaching hospitals, and this number is growing. From 2021 to 2022, the number of newly licensed physicians increased by 1,300 (24%), from 5,300 newly licensed in 2021 to 6,600 newly licensed in 2022. This is the second highest year-over-year numerical increase for newly licensed physicians in Texas in 40 years.

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The Shifting Politics of Healthcare Professionals

In the last 8 years, health professionals PACs’ contributions to candidates have shifted allegiances; in 2014, the majority of contributions went to Republican candidates but over the ensuing 8 years, healthcare PACs have shifted their money to the Democrats. [Source: OpenSecrets.org]

2014: $15,429,353 to Republicans vs. $10,597,508 to Democrats

2018: $13,819,441 to Republicans vs $10,949,985 to Democrats

2020: $10,839,418 to Republicans vs $10,784,919 to Democrats

2022: $9,932,381 to Republicans vs $11,163,321 to Democrats

The Texas Medical Association is the nation’s largest medical society and the strongest voice for physicians in Texas. With over 55,000 members, approximately 80% of Texas physicians belong to the TMA. Historically, TMA has been pro-physician and pro-patient, a group designed to help individual and small groups of doctors and their patients stand up to large hospitals and insurance companies. Lately however, their public health policies, legislative priorities, candidate endorsements and donor lists suggest otherwise.

Dr. Jimmy Widmer, head of TEXPAC, the political arm of the Texas Medical Association, testified against HB 81/ SB 177, the Texas COVID-19 Vaccine Freedom Act, authored by Mayes Middleton and Brian Harrison. (This bill passed the Senate, but never made it to the House floor for a vote.) The act states, “Any attempt to compel or coerce an individual lawfully residing in this state into being vaccinated against COVID-19 contrary to the individual’s preference is inconsistent with the principles of informed consent….A person may not take an adverse action or impose a penalty of any kind against an individual lawfully residing in this state for the individual’s refusal or failure to obtain medical treatment involving the administration of the COVID-19 vaccine.” The bill died, but just yesterday, Governor Greg Abbott announced a special session to revisit the bill.

HB 1686/ SB 14, Prohibiting Gender Transitioning Procedures and Treatments for Minors - “An act relating to prohibitions on the provision to certain children of  procedures and treatments for gender transitioning, gender  reassignment, or gender dysphoria and on the use of public money or  public assistance to provide those procedures and treatments” passed and was signed into law but was opposed by TMA pediatrician and head of the Texas Medical Association, Dr. Gary Floyd. Claiming to represent all 55,000 physicians in Texas, TMA sent a letter to Attorney General Ken Paxton opposing “the criminalization of evidence-based, gender-affirming care for transgender youth and adolescents.”

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Leadership Bias

In one of their virtual “Town Hall” meetings, Dr. Dirk Sostman, the Chief Academic Officer, claimed Governor Abbott urged Dr. Marc Boom, CEO of Houston Methodist Hospital, to “put a shot in every arm.”

At that time, Governor Abbott was following the guidance of hospital ally Dr. John Hellerstedt, eventually awarded with the Texas Hospital Association’s THA Trustee Award - the highest honor given to someone not directly involved in hospital management. The THA commended him for “wearing a mask and becoming one of the first Texans to become vaccinated against COVID-19….During industry-wide calls to address the pandemic, Dr. Hellerstedt made sure the needs of hospitals were amplified as the state public health team worked to respond.”

Here he is receiving the award with Dr. Marc Boom, CEO of Houston Methodist Hospital.:

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Retaliation

On November 12 2021, one of the largest non-profit hospitals in Houston with over $13 billion in assets suspended my privileges for spreading ‘dangerous misinformation.’ Days prior, I had released a series of 25 tweets all stating the same thing - “Vaccine mandates are wrong” - with a screenshot of different patient testimonials. Houston Methodist retaliated by declaring on Twitter I was spreading “dangerous misinformation” that was “harmful to the community.” I learned of my suspension through a text message from a reporter at the Houston Chronicle and spent the following months fielding interview requests from a swarm of media.

Not satisfied with publicly shaming me, Houston Methodist went on to report me to the Texas Medical Board; almost two years later, I am still trying to clear my name.

Many more physicians in Texas have had to defend themselves against the Texas Medical Board after speaking out against vaccines, fighting mask mandates and prescribing ivermectin. The Texas Medical Board suspended the license of Dr. Eric Hensen, an otolaryngologist in Palestine, Texas, after he was turned in for not wearing a mask in his office during the pandemic (eventually this was overturned and he is now suing the medical board.) Dr. Richard Urso and Dr. Stella Immanuel have had to defend themselves against prescribing hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin for COVID patients. All of us who have come under attack from the Texas Medical Board during the pandemic are still licensed, but the stress and expense of defending ourselves is not trivial. To date, my legal bills have amounted to almost $65,000.

Senator Bob Hall helped me obtain statistics on COVID-related complaints to the Texas Medical Board. Since 2020, the TMB has received 1990 COVID-related complaints. 332 of those (16.7%) were ultimately deemed jurisdictional, resulting in an investigation. Here’s a breakdown of the nature of the complaints:

The Texas Medical Board has become a weaponized-arm of COVID vaccine and mask zealots. Senator Bob Hall has worked tirelessly to protect this sort of persecution from happening in the future, writing SB 666, a bill that would prevent frivolous and fraudulent reports to the Texas Medical Board and bring transparency and accountability to complaint procedures against physicians in Texas. This bill was opposed by Associate VP of Public Affairs for the TMA, Michelle Romero, and after passing in the Senate, died in House committee.

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Setting a Precedent for the Rest of the Country

I believe Houston Methodist was strategically chosen to be the first hospital in the country to mandate the COVID shots. By pulling off mandates in the largest freedom-loving Republican state in the country, the hospital proved mandates can happen anywhere. And by targeting me - a solo physician inconsequential to their revenue stream - they sent a strong message to other physicians who might have wanted to speak out.

Florida has been very successful in passing medical freedom legislation, but attempts to protect medical freedom in Texas have mostly failed, with the majority of bills proposed by a few courageous legislators dying in committee. It’s no wonder, given the financial power and size of healthcare institutions in Texas and the changing face of Texas demographics and political party affiliations.  During the last congressional session, eleven medical freedom bills were voted on; only two passed, the rest died in committee - most of these passed in the Senate but were never voted on by the House.

The 88th legislative session ended May 29, but we have one more chance to protect Texas citizens from the tyranny of COVID shot mandates. Currently any private business, school or hospital in Texas can still mandate COVID shots. HB 81, the Texas COVID-19 Vaccine Freedom Act, co-authored by Brian Harrison and Mayes Middleton, passed in the Senate but thanks to calendars committee chairman Dustin Burrows, never made it out of House committee. Yesterday, Governor Abbott declared a third special session, designating reconsideration of this bill to “protect the freedom of Texans from forced COVID-19 vaccinations.” We hope legislators will have the courage to stand up to the largest medical center in the world, the largest physician organization in the country and the multi-billion dollar Houston hospital leading the COVID vaccine mandates. The threat is real - Ken Paxton was impeached three weeks after announcing an investigation against the COVID vaccine makers - but the stakes are high. The country is watching, and if Texas falls, the rest of the states are sure to follow.

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frontdesk@breathemd.org

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