While Texans are well over the COVID panic, one Texas county is still using it as cover for expanded surveillance of its citizens, all funded by the Federal Government.
Brazoria County, a Texas county of 372K people that borders Houston to the south, just authorized spending $370K to update its health department software. The original expense of $210K was approved for “contact tracing and vaccine tracking” related to Covid back in September 2021. The “amended” contract for $370K includes software for managing the county’s water testing program.
This information was “hidden in plain sight” on pages 297-325 of the 887-page agenda from the August 23, 2022, Brazoria county commissioner’s meeting, a public record. The county contracted with Yes&, a consulting company out of Houston, to provide updates to their Covid tracking system back in 2021, using Federal stimulus funds.
The initial contract specified:
“Brazoria County needs to transition from the State of Texas Health Trace system (Salesforce) for tracking covid lab test results, case management, contact tracing and vaccine uptake. This project will involve creating a new system based on the Salesforce ecosystem that will allow Brazoria County to manage their Covid-19 response effectively and efficiently.”
In plain English, it looks like Brazoria county paid a contractor 210K to move their data from a Salesforce system used by the State of Texas over to another proprietary Salesforce system.
These funds came with Federal strings attached, including compliance with such strange provisions as “encouraging contractors to wear seatbelts,” threats of penalties for violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and an obligation to comply with “any reporting obligations established by the Treasury.”
Again, plainly, Brazoria county agreed to Federal conditions in order to get money to better track citizens’ health status when it comes to Covid, “contact tracing” and “vaccine uptake” because they believed that the similar state system was inadequate.
By this point in the game, many Americans are resigned to the fact that the government at both federal and state levels mishandled various elements of the Covid 19 response. Mistakes were made, rights were thrown out the window, and money was wasted, all on top of the actual expected social and health costs of losing our loved ones to a new pathogen.
We’d like to believe that we’re moving past those mistakes. But wait, there’s more! The Brazoria county commissioners agreed this week to “amend” the contract to a final cost of $370,872 to include “the customization and implementation of a software solution that incorporates management of all reportable conditions for Epidemiological purposes, water treatment management, and vaccine management for the Health Department.” These services extend through December 2023.
Rather than move on from intrusive tracking, rather than move forward from wasteful spending, rather than move on from exclusive and expensive contractors and adopting a state-level solution, the Brazoria County folks doubled down! Under the guise of Covid, they continue to track citizens’ health data and are working on expanding their powers to “all reportable conditions.”
Wasteful spending, intrusive tracking of citizens’ private information, and hidden-in-plain-sight contracts are expected from the Federal government. Apparently, they’re also welcome in Brazoria County.
Noah is the Acting Editor of the Texian Partisan. He has written for the Texian Partisan, the Texas Nationalist Movement, and several other large-circulation publications and sites. Named for an early Texas settler and veteran of the Texas Revolution, Noah pours his passion for Texas independence into his writing. He is a 6th generation Texan from the Hill Country.
