Dewine set the standard on how to handle this pandemic (Ashtabula: credit, house)
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DeWine did NOT set the standard in COVID-19 epidemic response?
What did DeWine do right compared to other governors, especially almost all of his fellow Republican governors? He rapidly phased in social distance policies targeting large gatherings before ALMOST any other state or politician. However, DeWine was NOT the first political leader to implement stay-at-home social distancing policies, and his social distancing policies still have at least one significant loophole not seen in most non-Republican controlled states.
DeWine does deserve ever-lasting credit for shutting down relatively early large gatherings, even as President Trump continued to play down the seriousness of the COVID-19 threat.
DeWine began banning large gatherings of more than 100 persons before any other U.S. political leader, beginning with restrictions placed on The Arnold on March 5. Most immediately impacted were athletic events, but DeWine didn't extend the ban to all non-religious gatherings until March 12, a week after he limited spectators at The Arnold. DeWine has deservedly earned much credit for his trend-setting bans on large gatherings, but since then, his actions IMO have not been as exemplary compared to other governors, as exemplified by DeWine's inexplicable, except for political reasons, refusal to ban large religious gatherings.
The NBA suspended its season on March 11, but not in reaction to DeWine's order, but because one of its players tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. The NBA action likely ricocheted through American society much more than DeWine's action.
So this sentence in the following laudatory article about DeWine's response to the COVID-19 crisis appears very inaccurate, as the NBA action was less than a week after DeWine's imposed restrictions on The Arnold, and a day before DeWine issued his ruling banning all large gatherings. Most of DeWine's social distancing policy was implemented only on March 12, including public school closures.
<<Over the next three weeks, Mr DeWine moved to bar spectators from major sporting events - days before US professional leagues decided to cancel their seasons.>>
DeWine also forever deserves great credit for postponing Ohio's March 17 primary, even side-stepping a court order. DeWine took action as other states conducted primaries on that date, perhaps most disastrously including Michigan, which has become a hotspot in the COVID-19 epidemic.
Foremost among Ohio's social distancing loopholes, DeWine has NOT blocked religious gatherings.
<<Despite Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s plea to forego hosting large gatherings during the outbreak, the Solid Rock megachurch has invited worshippers to celebrate Palm Sunday service together.
“We agree that we must all comply with Governor DeWine’s administrative order and we are taking all necessary precautions to ensure the health and safety of anyone who comes to Solid Rock Church,” the megachurch said in a statement on its website.
The church said that normal services have been “scaled back,” all youth activities canceled, and older members encouraged to watch services online at home.
DeWine warned that pastors who bring people close together in large groups are “making a huge mistake,” the Journal-News reported.
DeWine 1) knows that allowing religious gatherings is a "huge mistake;" 2) almost all Ohio religious congregations are engaging in strict social distancing and cancelling large gatheries; 3) yet DeWine still keeps religious services, including weddings and funerals, on his "essential services" list, allowing those who believe that religious gatherings are more important than public safety to endanger the general Ohio population. WHY???
<<Religious entities: Religious facilities, entities and groups and gatherings, including weddings and funerals.>>
It's clear from his statements that DeWine does not believe that allowing religious gatherings during this epidemic is more important than general public safety. Yet he does not want to alienate, even minimally and for just a few months, the likely most ardent members of the Trump/DeWine political base.
California was the first state to issue a mandatory stay-at-home order on March 19, effective immediately.
DeWine, as detailed above, did earlier ban large gatherings on March 12. On the same day, California banned large gatherings of 250 or more, with severe restrictions on smaller gatherings not present in Ohio's order of the same date.
The standard setter in this epidemic was not any governor, but arguably the mayor of San Francisco. The stay-at-home order in San Francisco took effect on March 18 (11:59 p.m. on March 17), a day before the California order and six days before DeWine's stay-at-home order. The San Francisco order likely compelled California Gov. Gavin Newsom is issue his stay-at-home order a day later.
There are several other serious deficiencies in the DeWine response to the COVID-19 epidemic, which I will detail in subsequent posts, and IMO they all are politically motivated and significantly impair Ohio's ability to deal with the health epidemic, to protect general safety, and facilitate economic recovery as we emerge from this epidemic.
Among the most serious deficiencies in the Ohio response is the lack of transparency in its daily reports, as already discussed in post 14 in this thread.
I am no fan of DeWine but he has been a good leader through this...but I cannot understand why he exempts the religious gatherings...now thankfully my Episcopal church has closed and most churches have but a few haven't and they are putting the public at great risk.
But his appointment of an actual medical doctor to lead our State Health Dept has led to him being well ahead of this.
IN, MI, & PA all have far more cases than we do and it's because he acted so quickly.
I am no fan of DeWine but he has been a good leader through this...but I cannot understand why he exempts the religious gatherings
I don't understand that, either - why just a request to not hold in-person services, instead of a mandate to discontinue them?
There have been numerous local and national reports about the Solid Rock Church in Monroe (the "touchdown Jesus" church facing I-75) - people were hugging and kissing and saying God will protect them.
God gave us many gifts - and one of them is common sense. Sheesh.
DeWine warns about religious gatherings, but refuses to ban them
More double-talk from Gov. DeWine about his refusal to remove the exemption on religious gatherings from the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders.
<<“We're not going to interfere with your First Amendment rights to practice your religion,” DeWine said during a televised news conference. “But I don't know any religion that teaches that you should do things that endanger, seriously endanger, other people. I don't know any religion that says that it's just OK not to worry about your neighbor....”
“When we're dealing with this virus, we know it's all about not spreading it, and when people come together in a large group, at this stage, at this stage of how far we are along in Ohio, we can almost guarantee you that in a church – even not a very large church – there will be people who would test positive, who already have it,” the governor said Wednesday. “They may not know it, and you're really playing with the lives of your congregation.”>>
DeWine claims he's protecting First Amendment rights, but IMO he's actually ignoring a public health risk in order to pander to one of the bedrock political constituencies of the Trump/DeWine political base.
DeWine surely must be conscious of the reality that community spread threatens not only the lives of individuals flaunting safe distancing guidelines, but also of others in the community who become exposed to the virus, but also the lives of first responders and health care workers who are overburdened and over-exposed to the COVID-19 virus even as they lack sufficient personal protection equipment due to the inept performance of the Trump administration, which DeWine refuses to criticize despite the impact on Ohio.
Is there really a difference in mentality between partiers and pastors who ignore social distancing policies? Regardless of their purported excuses, all dismiss the pubic safety risk to others.
<<Those pastors have said people need the church now more than ever. In a brief interview with CNN, one of the church congregants said she believed she would not contract coronavirus because she is “covered in Jesus’ blood,” and that she is not concerned she could spread it to anyone else.
Is DeWine, despite his praise-worthy willingness to listen to experts, ignorant of the warnings about the inadequacy of 6-foot distancing, especially when singing is a part of services.
Singing results in the projection of viral content, perhaps making church services especially dangerous.
<<Two people have died from Covid-19 and 45 people are ill after a March 10 choir practice in Washington state, health officials said.
Of the some 60 people who attended the Skagit Valley Chorale rehearsal in Mount Vernon, 28 members have confirmed cases of the virus, according to Kayla Schott-Bresler of Skagit County Public Health.>>
<<The surprise, if anything, might be that the virus hasn’t spread more rapidly. “Why don’t even more people have it?” asked Richard Danzig, a national security and bioterrorism expert who served as secretary of the Navy under President Bill Clinton. “Early reports stated that only about 10% of family members of people who fall ill are infected. Possibly the numbers are wrong, but we need to focus on why so many people who are exposed don’t get sick.” The Lambeth House in New Orleans is a case in point. Even now there are a couple of hundred ancients still living there, virus free. How did it miss them?
One possibility — Danzig offered this up the other day at a virtual gathering of pandemic experts — is that the virus has a special need to be projected. “Shorter exposure in some contexts like church events seems to have more impact than prolonged exposure to infected family members at home even when no or few precautions were taken pre-symptomatically,” Danzig wrote to his fellow experts. “I am wondering if singing is the important characteristic of church events (the New Rochelle synagogue, et al), making them a major vector of transmission.”>>
Is DeWine ignorant of what happened in Albany, Georgia?
<<<<That cluster of coronavirus cases was linked to the funerals of 64-year-old Andrew J. Mitchell and another man, held in late February and early March, Dougherty County Council Chairman Chris Cohilas said. Albany, a city of roughly 75,000 people -- as well as Cohilas' county, where Albany is based -- is the latest example of how the virus has started disrupting smaller, more rural areas as much as the country's larger, urban cities....
As of Wednesday afternoon, there were at least 490 confirmed coronavirus cases reported in Dougherty County and at least 29 coronavirus-related deaths, the Georgia Department of Public Health said.>>
Consider that singing may project viral material well beyond six feet. One expert says viral material can be projected up to 27 feet (see below). DeWine at a minimum should ban singing at any gathering and require all participants, including pastors (many Evangelical pastors shout and sing) and other gathering participants, to wear masks, if he truly wants to limit community spread of the COVID-19 virus as a result of religious gatherings.
<<
Lydia Bourouiba, PhD, associate professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and an expert on the dynamics of exhalations, has found that exhalations can cause gaseous clouds that can travel up to 27 feet. Though she did not specifically study exhalations of patients with COVID-19, the new findings bring the 6-foot distancing guideline into question, and may have implications for future social distancing guidelines.>>
I don't understand that, either - why just a request to not hold in-person services, instead of a mandate to discontinue them?
There have been numerous local and national reports about the Solid Rock Church in Monroe (the "touchdown Jesus" church facing I-75) - people were hugging and kissing and saying God will protect them.
God gave us many gifts - and one of them is common sense. Sheesh.
God is most likely displeased that they are trying to spread the virus even if they don't mean to.
DeWine was hoping people would use intelligence and gave them the benefit of the doubt. He made a small mistake in that regard, so it's up to the citizens to point out and put an end to these types of activities as we encounter them.
Super-spreaders are the grim reapers of the COVID-19 epidemic
DeWine's ideological/political willingness to allow religious gatherings, hypocritical as persons are being forced not to work and stay at home avoiding non-religious social contact, risks unleashing "super-spreaders" on Ohio, as detailed today by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Are "stay-at-home" orders for non-religious activities any more Constitutional than would be a ban on religious gatherings???
Today's CDC report particularly examines the consequences of man unknowingly infected with the COVID-19 virus attending a funeral and a party.
<<The report released Wednesday cites a Chicago man linked to the infection of 15 other people, three of whom died, and concludes that people should follow social-distancing guidelines and stay-at-home orders, even if that means not attending or holding family gatherings.>>
I wonder if Ohio tracks super-spreaders. It's hard to believe there are none in Ohio, especially given DeWine's definition of religious gatherings, including weddings and funerals, as essential activities. So, if contact tracing is performed to identify any super-spreaders, Ohio isn't disclosing the consequences of their actions.
DeWine's administration does NOT emphasize transparency in this crisis.
One example is its refusal to disclose any information about clusters, even in nursing homes where relatives have a decided interest in knowing if their loved ones are at risk.
Disclosure of cluster information would focus attention on Ohio's inability to do adequate contact tracing due to a lack of testing capability. The DeWine administration provides just minimal information about testing in Ohio, likely because it would focus attention on the deficiencies of the Trump administration in providing resources during this epidemic. These deficiencies include a massive national shortfall of personal protection equipment, which certainly is a critical issue for nursing home employees and patients.
As noted in the above video, the DeWine administration says nothing about deplorable conditions in hospitals and about the abuse of nurses, such as the inability to collect unemployment if forced to resign due to the enhanced risk, especially with a lack of PPE, posed if nurses have preexisting health conditions.
A responsive administration would establish a whistle blower hotline to identify issues and then attempt to address the issues.
... whoa! ... sure glad you guys hipped me to DeWine's exemption for religious gatherings. I was unaware of this which is foolish and represents him bowing down to hyper religious wacko conservative special interests... While DeWine has generally been a fine leader through this crisis, this certainly takes him down a peg in my book.
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DeWine did NOT set the standard in COVID-19 epidemic response?
