Three’s a Crowd

We thought Trump had set the bar for how not to handle a national and global crisis. The mistakes, the lies, the blaming, the self congratulations, the dangerous cures, the denial of reality have all been very obvious. We have seen responsible leadership from governors like Cuomo of New York, Wolf of Pennsylvania, Murphy of New Jersey, Hogan of Maryland and Newsom of California who have been guided by health professions and facts on the ground in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. They all realize the economic crisis has to be weighed against people dying and hospitals collapsing under the pressure of relentless death coming through the doors. But if you look out around the country, the leadership in some states will scare you almost as much as the virus.

Let’s start with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. He has underplayed the virus from the very beginning. He keep beaches open for spring break in mid March and let thousands of college kids party on with no concern for a possible spread of infection. He has pushed hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the virus like his buddy the president even though every public health official said it’s never been properly tested to treat covid19 and could cause dangerous side effects. DeSantis is staring to reopen the state by allowing essential businesses to open. That includes WWE wrestling to hold live shows in Orlando. But over the weekend he really laid out his philosophy. In an interview he said, “Florida is ground zero for the nursing home-we’re God’s waiting room. Not all age groups were equally at risk for coronavirus-and deaths were occurring in “folks 65 and up”. He went on to say “hysteria” in the early weeks of the outbreak has not materialized in Florida. So if your parents or grandparents live in Florida, you should feel they’re in good hands. It’s where old people go to die.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp wins the prize for the most unaware governor in the country. For months, medical experts have been warning us that the virus can be spread by people who have the virus, but show no symptoms. This is one of the things that makes the virus so dangerous and hard to control. It wasn’t until April 1st at a news conference, Kemp announced he had just become aware of this well known fact, and it was a game changer for him. He issued a stay at home order. Now, Georgia is one of the first states that are starting to gradually open businesses this week like hair salons, spas, tattoo parlors, and bowling alley. Kemp said he was following Trump’s guidelines, but even Trump said Kemp was moving to fast and making a mistake. Trump is also mad at Kemp for not filling a vacant US Senate seat with Trump discipline Doug Collins. Kemp can’t seem to do anything right.

And finally, there’s South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem. She says, “I believe in our freedoms and liberties. What I’ve seen across the country is so many people give up their liberties for just a bit of security and they don’t have to do that.” Sure if they spread the virus and kill other people, that seems to be okay. Noem never issued a stay home order despite her state having the biggest coronavirus cluster in the country at the Smithfield Foods pork processing plant. The facility has closed done. Eight hundred of its 37 hundred workers tested positive for the virus. Today she’s calling for Smithfield to re-open. Noem is even unhappy with the money she’s getting from the federal government. She whined, “Congress did send South Dakota $1.57 billion dollars…but they tied our hands on how we can spend it. The only way I can spend this money is on Covid relief. I can’t spend it to replace revenues.”

There have been other governors who have not been up to the challenge of a lifetime. With the stakes this high, three’s a crowd we cannot afford.