“Because when that happens, we’re going to have new cases pop up.” – Brian Kemp
While touring a makeshift hospital at the Georgia World Congress Center, Brian Kemp told the AJC that opening businesses would necessarily result in new cases popping up. I thought the governor understood that opening the state while the COVID-19 count in Georgia is still on the climb would be a bad thing.
Silly-ass me. I didn’t realize that was the plan.
Today, according to Johns Hopkins, Georgia has 21,102 cases, 0 confirmed recovered cases, and 846 deaths. The daily confirmed new cases vary wildly. The variability is understandable because our test coverage is shitty. But the trend still points uncomfortably east-northeast.
Georgia is opening the doors of bowling alleys, movie theaters, hair salons, nail salons, massage parlors, and restaurants. I don’t think it’s super brilliant to start by opening the high-touch, close-contact businesses first.
While most states still ban major gatherings, Georgia takes it as a suggestion. States like California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, and New Jersey are guaranteeing sick leave. Nevada, Louisiana, Kentucky, Maryland, New York, Massachusetts, and Maine all require that the eventual coronavirus vaccine is free. Getting a little crazy, the Netherlands, Denmark, Malaysia, and the United Kingdom will cover a large portion of lost wages. However, with the evidence showing that the cases in Georgia are on the rise with no signs of slowing down until mid-June, Kemp’s plan is to sacrifice just enough people to keep the government from having to figure out a plan to protect its citizens.
It is not unreasonable to conclude that some locales with no cases might see some restriction relief. This could be accomplished by rigorous testing, monitoring, and control. But we don’t have testing coverage. From a per-capita standpoint, Georgia testing is at the bottom. Two weeks ago, there were 5 Coronavirus testing sites, all 5 of them in a parking deck at Georgia Tech. We just recently expanded to drug-store parking lots around the state. Georgia officials say that anyone with symptoms can get the test, but the testers themselves require you to have symptoms and a high-risk factor before you can get tested. Georgia just started ramping up Emory, Georgia State, and our public state health labs at Augusta University just one week ago. We just barely got to a 3,000 test-per-day capacity in a state with more than 10,000,000 people. Shouldn’t we find out if this system is reliable, stable, and capable before we start sending Georgians back together?
Instead, Kemp made sure that cities with large populations and large breakouts, like Atlanta and Albany, cannot use their local information, or their lack of information due to testing infancy, to override his decree. Kemp’s executive order specifically states that local governments cannot expand or minimize his. To quote Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, this plan is “Premature, Irresponsible, and Dangerous”. I’ll add “Spiteful, Insane, and Malicious”. But if the governor is driving the state down this road, you might expect that our testing and monitoring plan is robust. Cue the chirping of one lonely cricket. We haven’t started testing everyone who wants the test. Let alone people with mild symptoms or people that are asymptomatic. A sampling today in New York City suggests that 14% of the entire city might be infected. It’s absurd to think the same thing can’t happen here.
Obviously, the pain is real. People desperately need a paycheck. Other governments are guaranteeing paychecks, preventing forclosure, requiring banks and debt collectors to hold their fire, and governments are covering interest payments. They’re providing healthcare, quarantine, food delivery, and financial support to people falling ill. They are trying, with eyes open, to protect their citizens.
Not our Governor. His plan is to find the right balance of dead Georgians vs. coiffed hair-dos. Cake or death.