RED-STATE RESISTANCE
Although COVID-19 cases are soaring, Republican governors are reluctant to act
With cases surging to new highs and hospital capacity running low, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum teared up describing a state “caught in the middle of a COVID storm.”
Toweather it, he said at a news conference last week, people would need to keep their distance, wear masks and avoid gatherings. But the one thing North Dakota did not need were legal limits on reckless behavior.
“It’s not a job for government,” declared Burgum, a Republican.
The coronavirus is hammering America’s heartland this fall, with records shattered daily in states that had escaped theworst of the disease this spring and summer.
Yet, even as health authorities in small cities and rural towns plead for help in tamping down deadly outbreaks, many Republican governors are resisting new measures to stop the spread. Some even are loosening rules already on the books.
Instead, they preach the mantra of “personal responsibility,” insisting government interventions such as mask mandates or business restrictions either are unnecessary or harmful, and that people should be trusted to make their own decisions about how to keep themselves — and each other — healthy.
“This is a job for everybody,” Burgum said, describing recommendations for safe behavior, but no new requirements.
Public health experts say that’s an inadequate prescription, one that carries great peril as infections climb, the weather drives people indoors and large segments of the population are proving less willing to take the virus seriously.
“This really demands a coordinated, orchestrated higher-level response than just saying to an individual person, ‘Here’s what you might want to try,’” said David Aronoff, director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
An overreliance on personal responsibility, health officials say, is one of the reasons America’s struggle with the coronavirus has been so destructive, with more than 8 million cases and at least 218,000 people dead.
And they maintain it’s unlikely to be the solution now— especially as Republican leaders from President Donald Trump on down send misleading messages and model dangerous behavior.
While Democratic governors in blue states such as New York, New Mexico and California have rolled back reopening plans in response to rising coronavirus rates, the opposite has been true of Republican leaders in red states where the virus nowis running rampant.
In South Dakota, Republican Gov. Kristi Noem has played down the significance of the climbing caseload, claiming it’s due to testing and is “normal.”
“We have triple the amount of testing that we’re doing in the state of South Dakota, which is why you’re seeing elevated positive cases,” she said. “That is normal. That’s natural. That’s expected.”
But a rise in tests wouldn’t explain why hospitalization and death rates also have spiked.
“COVID in our state has exploded,” said Linda Duba, a Democratic state legislator. “And that’s unfortunately to be expected when there isno encouragement from our leaders to mask, to social distance or to take basic precautions.”
More than 300 people have died statewide, with one of Duba’s colleagues in the state House of Representatives among them.
Yet when legislators packed the floor in the state Capitol to listen to Noem’s speech during a special session this month, Duba said she could count on10 fingers the number wearing masks.
The lax attitude toward masks displayed by politicians can be seen among the public, much to the frustration of front-line hospital workers.
Benjamin Aaker, an emergency room doctor, said he and his colleagues have been “proclaiming from the rooftops” the virtues of masks and social distancing. But to little effect.
“Despite the number of cases now dwarfing the number of cases we saw in April and May, concern about the virus has largely evaporated,” said Aaker, who leads the South Dakota State Medical Association. “People are showing real complacency.”
While North Dakota had avoided a serious bout with coronavirus until recently, other states have endured earlier waves and thought they had the disease beaten — only to find it roaring back now.
When Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee lifted his few remaining restrictions at the end of September, leaders of the Volunteer State seemed to think they had brought their coronavirus outbreak under control.
“Tennesseans have learned how to assess risk and how to take the right steps to protect themselves and those around them,” Lee, a Republican, said at a news conference at the time.
Twoweeks later, however, cases are surging once again. Lee is quarantining after exposure to an infected security staff member. And experts say the state’s struggles should be a lesson that the pandemic requires constant vigilance — and an aggressive response.
“You can almost follow the timeline as for when things got loosened and when the spike came,” said Alex Jahangir, a physician who chairs the Nashville Metropolitan Board of Health.
He also noted it would be “very helpful if the state would reimpose some of the stuff they had before.”
“Despite the number of cases now dwarfing the number of cases we saw in April and May, concern about the virus has largely evaporated.” Benjamin Aaker, an emergency room doctor