Omicron on track to shatter Texas' COVID-19 hospitalization record
“The situation in Texas is that it probably won’t reach the peak [for cases] until the second half of January,” a top researcher said. Full Story
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Karen Brooks Harper
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Karen Brooks Harper reported on the state budget and health and human services from 2020 to 2024. An alumna of the Missouri School of Journalism, Karen arrived in Texas in 1995 to join the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, spent several years in Laredo and Mexico covering immigration and the drug war for Knight-Ridder newspapers, and has covered Texas politics for more than two decades for news organizations including the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Dallas Morning News and Reuters.
Past Contributions
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Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune -
Ted Cruz called the Jan. 6 riot a “terrorist attack.” Now he says he misspoke.
After conservative backlash, Cruz took to a FOX News show — whose host also lambasted him — to backpedal from comments he made during a congressional hearing. Full Story
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![U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz speaks as FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the January 6th insurrection, in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 2, 2021.]()
Credit: Mandel Ngan/Pool via REUTERS -
COVID-19 hospitalizations double in Texas as omicron strains staffing
The number is surging, though it is still much lower than the peak one year ago. Full Story
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"This is a dark day": For Texas abortion providers, U.S. Supreme Court ruling feels apocalyptic
Even though a legal fight continues, providers warn that abortion clinics could eventually have to shut down since enforcement of the law can continue. Full Story
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![Catalina Leano, a licensed vocational nurse at Houston Women's Reproductive Services, performs an ultrasound with the clinic doctor present, to determine whether the woman is less than six weeks pregnant and eligible to have an abortion in Texas on Oct. 1, 2021.]()
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With the federal vaccine mandate for health care workers halted, Texas nursing homes dodge furloughs and fines
Texas’ nursing home staff vaccination rates are lower than half the country’s — but a judge’s decision last week to delay a vaccine mandate helped them avoid laying off a third of their employees. Full Story
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![Norma Gonzales, the housekeeping supervisor of Amistad Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, walks with Ursula Sinko, a resident of the facility, on April 1, 2021.]()
Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune -
Texas reports its first case of the omicron COVID-19 variant
Early indicators suggest the variant is very contagious, but little is known about the severity of disease it causes. Full Story
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![A lab at Methodist Dallas Medical Center prepares viral transport media for samples before collecting samples for COVID-19 in Dallas on June 24, 2020.]()
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Texas scientists search for potentially virulent new omicron COVID-19 variant as state health officials push vaccination
So much is unknown about the new COVID-19 variant: the severity of the illness it causes, whether it can resist vaccines and natural antibodies and whether it’s more contagious than the delta variant that has burned through Texas and the U.S. for months. Full Story
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![Travelers gather their luggage at baggage claim at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on Nov. 18, 2021.]()
Credit: Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune -
COVID-19 hospitalizations in Texas are lower than they have been in months, but experts say there’s still reason to be wary
A surge in COVID-19 cases from the West is impacting El Paso. Full Story
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![Nurses, family and one furry therapy dog named Dexter comfort Miranda Morales, 10, as she receives her first dose of the Pfizer pediatric COVID-19 vaccine at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center in Houston on Nov. 3, 2021.]()
Credit: Annie Mulligan for The Texas Tribune -
Fewer patients, smaller staff, an uncertain future: abortion providers await court decision on Texas law
For two months, providers have had to work in a sort of limbo as they wait to see if the new law passes the Supreme Court's review. Full Story
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![An ultrasound machine sits next to an empty patient's bed at Whole Women’s Health of Austin on Sept. 1, 2021.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
Dallas health care program for transgender kids formally dissolved after becoming target of conservative criticism
Hospital officials cited privacy for children as a reason behind the decision and said patients will still receive care through other departments. Full Story
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![Protestors participate in a rally against Anti-Trans legislation at the southern steps of the state capitol on April 28, 2021.]()
Credit: Evan L'Roy/The Texas Tribune
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