 |
| Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via AP, Pool |
Voters rewarded governors who reopened fastest from COVID:
For many governors on the ballot this week, the pandemic was the defining issue of their term — and those who pushed for the fastest reopening after the initial wave of lockdowns were among the biggest winners.
Greg Abbott in Texas, Ron DeSantis in Florida and Brian Kemp in Georgia led the way in reopening in 2020, in some cases even defying President Trump’s calls for a slower approach. Each romped to re-election.
It wasn’t just Republicans. In Colorado, Gov. Jared Polis was the first Democrat to let a shutdown order expire in 2020, and he also crushed his opponent.
“The ones that opened up the soonest in states that depended on tourism, service industries, those governors were rewarded by the voters like nobody else,” said Ford O’Connell, a GOP strategist based in Florida.
That’s not to say COVID dominated the election. It didn’t. Which is news itself.
The virus, which helped unseat a sitting president in 2020 and helped install a GOP governor in Virginia in 2021, barely rippled across this year’s races.
Broadcast networks’ exit polling was peppered with pandemic questions in 2020 and the next year when Glenn Youngkin won in Virginia. It didn’t get mentioned much this year. --->READ MORE HERE
 |
| Photo: caroline brehman/Shutterstock |
The Biden administration gave no signal to state officials on Friday of plans to end the Covid-19 pandemic’s status as a public-health emergency, in turn leaving the designation in place past January.
The Department of Health and Human Services previously told states they would get 60 days’ notice before the public-health emergency is lifted. The designation was renewed in October through Jan. 11. The lack of notice to states means the public-health emergency may extend until the spring.
“The Covid-19 public-health emergency remains in effect and as HHS committed to earlier, we will provide a 60-day notice to states before any possible termination or expiration,” said Sarah Lovenheim, assistant secretary for public affairs at HHS.
The public-health emergency was first declared in January 2020, under the Trump administration, and has been renewed by 90 days every time it was due to expire. Some Republicans say the designation is no longer necessary and should be lifted. The GOP’s push to end the public-health emergency intensified in September when President Biden asserted that the pandemic was over.
The public-health-emergency designation enables certain Covid-19 measures, such as the suspension of eligibility renewals for people on Medicaid and the prescription of controlled substances via telehealth, which will remain in place for now. States are bracing for a massive effort to redetermine individuals’ Medicaid eligibility once the designation is lifted, and public-health leaders say millions of beneficiaries could lose coverage. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
German regions plan to end mandatory COVID isolation
Half of nurses have considered leaving the nursing profession: poll
USA TODAY: Coronavirus Updates
WSJ: Coronavirus Live Updates
YAHOO NEWS: Coronavirus Live Updates
NEW YORK POST: Coronavirus The Latest
If you like what you see, please "Like" and/or Follow us on FACEBOOK here, GETTR here, and TWITTER here.
No comments:
Post a Comment