Vance Ginn, the chief economist for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, tweeted out statistic about COVID-19 to back his belief that schools should reopen in the fall. The tweet backfired quickly when it showed Ginn’s racism.
According to the Texas conservative, schools should reopen because stats show that the people who are mainly dying are the “elderly and Hispanics.”
In an interview with The Texas Tribune, Ginn said the intention of his Twitter thread was to outline the more thorough data provided by the state. He also said his tweet with the GIF was “woefully taken out of context out of bad faith.”
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“What we’re really focused in on is, ‘How can we best make sure that Texans are taken care of during this time?’” he said. Given the revised data that shows demographic breakdowns, he questioned whether state and local officials should take a more “targeted approach” to combatting the virus, rather than passing blanket policies.
Ginn later removed the tweet and apologized. “I believe strongly based on my deep faith that every life is precious,” he wrote. “My intent was to highlight the positive development of more data available to make better policy decisions and help the vulnerable.”
