1,000 signatures reached
To: Texas Medical Association
TMA, DROP YOUR GOP CONVENTION SPONSORSHIP, OR DOCS WILL BOYCOTT YOU
The Texas Medical Association, an organization representing 53,000 physicians in Texas, will be sponsoring a mask-optional Texas GOP convention, scheduled for July 16-18 in Houston, Texas. Harris County has moved back into "Stay Home Stay Safe" mode under an advisory that COVID-19 infections are severe and uncontrolled in the area. Our hospitals are at or near capacity. It is utterly reckless for a medical organization to be complicit in an event that defies CDC recommendations and the broad consensus of physicians and public health officials on multiple counts. The TMA must withdraw its support of the Texas GOP convention.
Why is this important?
I am a physician scientist actively engaged in COVID-19 education, organizing, and advocacy within and beyond Harris County. The local response to containing the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to struggle against the irresponsible decisions being made by other parties. We live and die by those decisions.
The Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas is world renowned. But my colleagues admit readily that the hospitals there are full, and they are fearful of what lies ahead.
We are universally appalled that the most visible physicians' organization is supporting a very large gathering of people at a mask-optional event amid this crisis. We cannot in good conscience continue to support the TMA if it moves forward with participating in the Texas GOP convention on July 16-18. This is a pledge for Texas physicians to boycott the organization if it fails to withdraw.