North Houston News

A Facebook video from Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough has gone viral after he called for Texas to fully reopen.

"When is this madness going to end?" Keough said in the video. 

In the start of the video, Keough walked through the constantly changing predictions and justifications that have been used to maintain ongoing states of emergency. Ultimately, though, he says Texas has succeeded in flattening the curve and ensuring hospitals aren’t overwhelmed.

KHOU went through some of the claims Keough made in his video, as he painted a picture where the state is ready to reopen and risks are being blown out of proportion.

The station concluded that his claim that 99% of local patients with COVID-19 survive. While KHOU compared the death rate among confirmed COVID-19 cases as 1.3% and pointed out that the annual death rate from the flu is lower at 0.1%, the station did not address that the numbers are based on confirmed cases, and do not account for individuals who may have contracted the virus and simply stayed home until they recovered.

The station also confirmed Keough’s claim that 94% of COVID-19 deaths in Montgomery County have been individuals with a comorbidity.

Although the U.S. Centers for Disease Control has warned about the negative mental health effects of coronavirus restrictions, KHOU challenged Keough’s claim that the suicide rate in Montgomery County is on the rise. The station compared the 85 suicides in the county last year at this time to the current 77 suicides total for 2020.