President Donald Trump has been clamoring to get parts of the economy re-opened as quickly as possible following efforts to close down businesses like restaurants that could provide for the spread of the Coronavirus, but POLITICO outlines how a slew of governors across the country are actually banding together against the president’s dismissal of the on-the-ground seriousness of the outbreak. Following coordination in shutdown orders between governors of Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, POLITICO reports that “Minnesota’s Tim Walz has started conversations with his counterparts in North Dakota and Wisconsin about an upper Midwest pact to ensure that their states are in sync on rules around social distancing.”
Even some Republicans, like North Dakota Republican Governor Doug Burgum and South Dakota Republican Governor Kristi Noem have worked to coordinate their own efforts. Burgum, POLITICO explains, has also spoken with Montana Democratic Governor Steve Bullock and authorities from the neighboring Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
Unified action in certain regions could prove crucial to stemming the spread of the Coronavirus, because if one freely intermingling locale sits among even the most strictly locked down areas, the virus could still spread. The Trump administration has been considering rolling out new guidelines regarding “social distancing” that could single out specific counties and areas where the virus has been detected in large quantities and leave the rest of the country free to go about their ordinary routine — although that could leave them and those around them vulnerable.
As Connecticut’s Democratic Governor Ned Lamont put it:
‘We will combat this virus by working together and remaining consistent across our borders.’
Illinois Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker commented similarly, insisting, in reference to the frequently haphazard implementation of lockdown demands:
‘The patchwork remains a patchwork as long as the federal government doesn’t step up and recognize this is a war. The federal government needs to lead and until it does we will be a leader here in Illinois.’
It’s worth noting that the actual majority of binding lockdown orders have come from state authorities rather than the Trump administration. Still, a change in the general guidelines that the Trump administration has produced could provide anti-science Republican governors with the cover to ease social distancing demands and allow their citizens to intetmingle more freely, no matter the ensuing spread of the Coronavirus. Iowa Republican Governor Kim Reynolds, for instance, has suspiciously insisted that “we’re different here in Iowa than they are in New York.” She and Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis have both refused to issue broad lockdown orders.
Trump has singled out states like Iowa, Idaho, and Nebraska as potential candidates for re-opening efforts. The virus, to be clear, has spread to each and every state, and areas in which the illness appears to be at low levels could be skewed by a lack of appropriate testing capabilities. Opening up those sections of the economy before an adequate large-scale testing regimen is implemented could quickly prove profoundly irresponsible. As a whole, the U.S. is already at well over 100,000 cases, along with over 1,700 deaths and counting.
