Covid-19 Gives Texas a Reality Check
The governor’s failure to recognize and confront the contagion has helped lead to crisis.
He reopened his state too quickly.
Photographer: Lynda M. Gonzalez-Pool/Getty ImagesThe Texas Medical Center in Houston is the largest health care complex in the world, so vast it describes itself, accurately, as a “medical city.” About 106,000 people work there, traversing 50 million square feet of property. If TMC were a stand-alone business district, it would be the eighth largest in the U.S.
TMC isn’t a mere business district, however. It’s a conglomeration of more than 50 medical institutions, all nonprofits, including 21 hospitals, eight academic and research centers, four medical schools, seven nursing schools, three public health organizations, two pharmacy schools and a dental school. It is home to the world’s largest children’s hospital and the world’s largest cancer hospital. It treats eight million patients annually.