Politics should not interfere with Gov. Wolf’s efforts to save lives in a pandemic
A group of Pennsylvania doctors has taken an extraordinary stance to protect what we all should consider sacrosanct – science and medicine.
An estimated 170 Pennsylvania doctors who are members of the national Committee to Protect Medicare are alarmed at what they see as politics interfering with sound medicine. They also are alarmed at efforts to tie the hands of responsible government officials during a public health crisis of the magnitude of COVID-19.
Pennsylvania voters elected Gov. Tom Wolf to protect the commonwealth and to take all measures needed to protect its people during an emergency. COVID-19 is nothing short of an emergency that already has claimed almost 8,000 lives in the state and sent thousands of others into emergency room.
More than 153,000 Pennsylvanians have tested positive for the virus, and the numbers continue to mount.
It’s worth remembering there is still no vaccine and no treatment for COVID-19, and much about this virus’s long-term effects on the human body is still unknown. We still don’t know with scientific certainty who will get the virus, but not know they have it; and who will die in the ICU stuck to a ventilator.
These physicians are rightly concerned about politics interfering with the governor’s ability to respond forcefully to save lives, especially if COVID-19 goes into warp speed again this fall. And they are rightly calling out Republican lawmakers and a 41-year-old federal judge for deeming unconstitutional Gov. Wolf’s moves to shut down businesses and keep people home to contain the coronavirus.
U.S. District Judge William S. Stickman IV, who made the ruling, had no judicial experience before President Donald Trump appointed him to the federal bench last year.
Dr. Max Cooper, a Chester County emergency room doctor, put it bluntly: “As physicians, we’re concerned that blind, unques
tioning loyalty to President Trump by elected officials in Harrisburg is getting in the way of good public health policies and endangering people’s lives.”
Cooper and the other doctors are showing desperately needed leadership and courage in calling attention to what they clearly see as an imminent danger to public health.
“Physicians have a responsibility to speak out when we see harm being done,” Cooper said, “and harm is being done right now to the people of Pennsylvania.”
Gov. Wolf and Secretary of Health Rachel Levine have won acclaim throughout the nation for taking strong action that prevented more people in our state from contracting COVID-19 and dying. Poll after poll has shown the majority of the people of Pennsylvania supported these moves and were grateful for their leadership. Dr. Cooper and his colleagues are convinced the restrictions
Wolf ordered prevented needless suffering and saved lives.
The governor already had relaxed most of the shutdown orders Judge Stickman deemed unconstitutional, but the doctors don’t want his hands tied in case strong measures are needed this fall.
We thank Dr. Cooper and his colleagues for speaking up. Gov. Wolf has said he will file an appeal and seek a stay to prevent the court decision from being enforced. We urge the Wolf administration to use all measures to curtail his ability to protect Pennsylvanians in times of crisis when decisive and speedy action is imperative.
Gov. Wolf and Dr. Levine have shown they respect both science and medicine. And most Pennsylvanians clearly want them to put public safety above both politics and purse.