Six months ago, @mmorris011, @emfoxhall and I set out to determine the behind-the-scenes decision making for keeping the rodeo open for so long despite the threat of COVID-19. What we found was alarming https://twitter.com/HoustonChron/status/1310204872168534018

As early as January, doctors were warning Houston area public health officials that people were showing up at hospitals w/ COVID-like symptoms.

But because of stringent testing guidelines from the @CDCgov, none of them could be tested because they hadn't traveled to Wuhan

Then, a group of Houston residents in February returned from a cruise in Egypt, which was not a known hotspot for the virus at the time. But it turns out, they had all been exposed.

For more than a week, they went about their normal lives -- going to churches, visiting friends and family, shopping at Costco.

One cruise member went to the ER after falling sick but was sent home. They tested him for the flu and sent him home when it came back negative.

Houston leaders learned of that the cruise members had been exposed on Feb. 29, when a Taiwanese-American tested positive in Taiwan.

But still, they let @RODEOHOUSTON, which generates an estimated $391 million in economic activity, continue

By the time Houston leaders had a confirmed case of community spread -- and shut down the rodeo -- 850,000 people had passed through the NRG gates.

But it was too late. The region had already been exposed.