Polis’ response will save lives where others have failed

Right now, two-thirds of Americans are under some version of a state or local shelter-in-place order to combat the spread of COVID-19, flatten the curve of contagion and reduce the strain on our alreadyovertaxed and soon to be overwhelmed health care system. However, even as the exponential curve ramps upwards at a terrifying pace and the U.S. death toll doubles — or worse — every day, the lack of a federal response thus far to the crisis has left it in the hands of our nation’s governors.

This creates a patchwork of policies, a state-by-state inequity in medical staff, equipment and protective gear, and, ultimately, the infection and mortality rates of Americans depending on which state they live in.

Many of our nation’s governors, from both parties, are taking this as deadly serious as the moment demands, but unfortunately, many governors have been more frightened for the life of their states’ economies than the health and life of their residents. I don’t think these are easy calls, to force millions of Americans to stop earning a living and to shut down entire sectors of our economy cannot be an easy choice, but at this point, it is an obvious and necessary one if we are to stem the toll this virus takes on our country.

On one hand, you have our governor, Jared Polis, who from day one took COVID-19 suit-andtie-on-a-sunday seriously. His daily briefings have been extremely helpful, science-based, and severe, but not panic-inducing. His candor and desire to get Coloradans the most accurate and up-to-date information in the midst of this nightmare is refreshing, especially compared to our commander in chief’s daily campaign rallies disguised as outbreak updates, where he introduces us to his political allies like the My Pillow guy.

Gov. Polis resisted issuing a statewide stay-at-home order as long as was practicable, allowing local governments and health agencies to craft plans suited best to their communities, but when the state’s medical professionals said it was time to do so, he made the difficult choice to ask us all to stay indoors. These are the tough calls Coloradans elected Polis to make, and he is rising to the occasion by every measure available.

On the other hand, you have governors like Florida’s Ron Desantis who resisted calls from Florida’s medical community to issue stay at home orders until mid-day on April 1. Every day that we are not practicing social distancing or taking precautions is a day the virus will find thousands of more footholds in the bodies of our friends and family members. Beaches in Florida were flooded with Floridians and out-of-state spring-breakers, many of whom are no doubt carrying the virus home, increasing the amount of time this horrid infection has to wreak havoc on our populous, and our economy.

The fact that your chance of exposure or survival could very well depend on the partisanship of your governor on whether or not he or she was nice enough to Donald Trump is as un-american as it is terrifying. Trump finally acknowledges that fatalities from COVID-19 in the U.S. will be high, and could easily pass 200,000 before this is over.

Indeed, the US death toll from COVID-19 appears to be on track to be one of the worst in the world. As of April 1, the virus has claimed the lives of more than 4,500 Americans, up from 4,000 on March 31 and 555 on March 23rd. That’s a 710% increase in deaths in one week. This thing shows no signs of slowing down, unless we all listen to what public health and medical professionals are telling us and do everything we can to flatten the curve.

I’m grateful to live in a state whose elected leadership has taken this pandemic seriously from day one, and genuinely scared for my friends and family members who live elsewhere. It’s tempting to smack around state Senate Republicans who sent a letter tisk-tisking Polis for his stay-at-home order, but history will quickly do so itself without this columnist’s input.

For now, my fellow Coloradans, I implore you, stay indoors unless you are an absolutely essential worker, wear masks if you can, wash your hands until they are raw, wipe down every package you get, and please, please stay safe and healthy as we try and get through this together.

Ian Silverii is the executive director of Progressnow Colorado, the state’s largest progressive advocacy group.