I had a very similar experience, however it was Nebraska, not Texas. Pandemic happened and everyone went panic mode for about two weeks. Local government said

I had a very similar experience, however it was Nebraska, not Texas. Pandemic happened and everyone went panic mode for about two weeks. Local government said they were going to base restrictions off one metric, hospital capacity, and then things sort of went back to normal as the city hospitals weren't overflowing for very long. People did die, but the it seemed like all the people who got screwed had obvious and major pre-existing conditions and the community was generally surprised they had made it as far as Covid in the first place. No one I knew thought it wasn't happening, but the media response versus the severity of the problem on the ground seemed at odds in the area.