To leaders who want to open NM up early: Don’t
I’M ANGRY. The reasons are many, but I’m going to focus on three: local leadership is uninformed, local leadership is arbitrary, and as a result of those two facts people are dying alone.
The local leadership is making uneducated decisions and does not understand the reason that a stay-at-home order needs to stay in effect. Just because the numbers are low does not mean the virus isn’t here. If you look at the per capita positive test rates — the number that helps us compare populations — Cibola County has higher death and case rates than the state as a whole and the county of Bernalillo. The more places that are open, the more chance of contact, the more chance of spread and illness, including death. It’s pretty simple.
The local leadership is once again choosing what laws to uphold and what ones to ignore. I believe in challenging authority, but there is a right and wrong way. Go to the governor, make the case, work with others around the state to make the case. The nursery folks did it and won. What does that say to our children, when they see adults not following rules or only following the ones they like? If local businesses find themselves unable to operate in the current environment, they should work to innovate their operations. Be part of the solution.
The third reason is more personal. How would you feel if you or a loved one contracted the disease, seriously enough to end up in the hospital, and you couldn’t have visitors or you couldn’t go and hold their hand or advocate for them? Folks who are dying are dying alone. That makes me angry.
To the people of New Mexico, stay home, wear a mask, if you have to go out, wash hands, cover your cough, stay home if sick.
I’ve always been proud of my public health work in communities, especially when public health was at the table with them on emergency preparedness planning. Now is the time for those same leaders to stand up and keep their communities safe.
CONNIE DIXON Retired N.M. DOH public health director