August 8, 2020
It was a Friday night, and Ivan Melendez, the public health authority for Hidalgo County, Texas, had been on the job since 7 am. He was preparing to put in another 10 hours of work as he parked outside Edinburg Regional Medical Center, about a half-hour drive from the Mexican border.
“The other patients are looking at them not wanting to be intubated because they know what that means: They’re slowly dying,” Melendez said.