In this interview, emergency‑room physician Dr. Beau Brees of Houston Methodist Hospital explains that Houston’s COVID‑19 surge peaked about two weeks ago and is now declining, with current hospital and ICU capacity exceeding demand. He notes that the worst single‑day death toll in Texas (112 deaths) is roughly 11 % of New York’s peak, despite Texas having about 50 % more residents, and argues that media narratives portraying Houston as the next New York are misleading. Dr. Brees cites a study by VCU and Yale indicating roughly 30,000 excess deaths in March‑April, of which about 35 % were unrelated to the virus and resulted from patients avoiding care due to fear and lockdowns. He discusses broader societal impacts—closed arts, sports, education, and economic disruption—and suggests that political forces on the left are attempting to reshape the pandemic story after perceived poor performance. The conversation also includes personal observations, such as his daughter’s inability to attend dance class, to illustrate cultural loss.
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Houston Methodist Hospital, one of the major hospitals in Houston. Dr. Beau Brees is an emergency room physician there. So, Dr. Brees, welcome back to my show. You're becoming a media sensation.
I guess so. The hat— the picture of me in a hat in the New York Times, I guess, did it. But it's good to be back on the air with you.
Thank you. Well, you have a better chance of doing this than I do of doing your work. Let's put it that way. There was no, there was no danger of my being an emergency room physician. So, well, let me, let me ask you, because I mean, it's just, it's, it's now a bombardment in the news that Houston will be the new New York City and the hospitals are now, uh, what are they moving ICU patients into extra rooms and so on? What is actually happening?
Uh, well, what's actually happening is, uh, that overall, uh, considering that we had a peak that happened, probably started about, probably peaked about 2 weeks ago in terms of initial onset of cases, we're doing really well. We have more capacity than we need to deal with the issue at hand. We did have, but you know, the disease lasts about 3 weeks, so about 2 weeks ago in the ERs, we had our peak volume, and then it's been steadily declining. For example, this week was about 25% lower in our system than it was 2 weeks ago. And so you see that— you see the deaths peak, you know, a couple weeks later, the folks that unfortunately pass away from this illness. So we did have our biggest, our biggest number of deaths in Texas this week. 112 people passed away on, uh, one day, uh, this week, um, which means that compared to New York, since the comparison seems to be to New York that we're seeing in the media over and over and over again, we hit 11% of their worst day. Not quite 11%.
That's not quite the new New York. That's on your worst day.
Yeah, that's our worst day. And just to put that in perspective, remember Texas has 50% more people. We've got 50% more people in Texas. Right, than, than New York. So in order for us to be in a similar level for the rate of death from coronavirus in Texas compared to New York, um, for the rate of death, we would have to have, uh, more than double our worst day every single day for the rest of the year, assuming no one dies in New York of coronavirus for the rest of the year. It's a completely false narrative. We're going to work. It's a little less slow than it should be because folks with cancer, diabetes, end-stage renal disease, with electrolyte issues, people with strokes, they're not showing up in our ERs because they're so afraid to, because the media has terrified them. And a very interesting study came out today. I don't know if you saw it. VCU and Yale got together and did some data on excess death because of that's occurred recently. And in March and April, in March and April, about 30,000 more people died, plus or minus, than should have, not because of coronavirus deaths. And it seems like a lot of that was because folks weren't able to get in to see their doctors, weren't able to get their prescriptions, were too terrified to show up at emergency departments for legitimate emergencies like chest pain that was a sign of—
So it wasn't from the coronavirus?
Well, there were, there were excess deaths from Corona.
No, no, clearly. But I'm saying, but, but a serious percentage of it was not from the virus. It was from people not getting treated.
35% of the excess deaths were from people not being treated. And it's, it's the fear and it's the destruction of the economy and all of its effects. My little girl can't go to dance class.
Right, right, right.
She can't go to dance class. The arts are closed. Elton John can't perform. You know, we can't enjoy sports. We can't educate our children. Literally every part of what makes our culture what it is is being destroyed. And, and to the extent that we have history, you know, folks are taking care of that with statues. So it's, it's, it is, as we typically see, I'll be direct here. I think that what we're seeing is an attempt to change the narrative because the left did so poorly in dealing with coronavirus compared to the right. That they have to make this be what the story is. And you know, when I was talking with—
yeah, hold on there. This is really important. Please stay on. Dr. Bull Breeze, Houston Methodist Hospital.
