Washington – In the ten months that the coronavirus has spread to the United States, governors have come together to fight a “common enemy,” supporting each other to navigate the pandemic, the Michigan governor said. Gretchen Whitmer, and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine as they reflected on the challenges they faced in resolving the extraordinary public health crisis.
“I know this is not a time when any of us would have chosen to be governor, and yet it was up to us to take on this challenge and do what we had to do to protect the people we serve,” Whitmer, a Democrat, said in a interview with DeWine, a Republican, on “Face the Nation.” “Instead of a broader national strategy, it was really up to us to navigate. And I think we’ve done a lot together.”
Governors have been at the forefront of the pandemic response, implementing orders to mitigate the spread of the virus as they struggle with the economic consequences of the public health crisis, once a century. Although states have implemented varying degrees of measures to limit the spread of coronavirus, no state has been saved.
In Michigan, there have been more than 515,000 confirmed infections and more than 12,680 deaths. In Ohio, the number of confirmed cases exceeds 664,000 and the number of deaths exceeds 8,400. Across the country, the number of confirmed cases is 19 million and more than 332,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins University.
Both Whitmer and DeWine characterized the coronavirus as a “common enemy” that has united governors of neighboring states as they have pooled resources and experience to fight the pandemic.
“This virus doesn’t stop at the state line. It doesn’t stop at the party line. This is a common enemy,” Whitmer said. “And so we’ve always looked at it, trying to learn from the best science. Being a new virus, we’ve learned an incredible amount. But when I share information with Governor DeWine and vice versa, I get benefit from the Cleveland Clinic and all the experts we talk to and get the benefit of the University of Michigan and all the experts we talk to. “
DeWine said governors across the Midwest are working together on strategies to prioritize which populations receive first coronavirus vaccines. He said that while there has been consensus among those in the first batch (health workers and residents in residences), he hopes there will be fractions when it comes to identifying who will be next to receive the shots.
Both DeWine and Whitmer were targets of extreme vitriol and threats because of the mandates they imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Six men face federal charges over a plot to kidnap Whitmer because of his restrictions.
Whitmer said all governors have received reactions to do too much and not do enough, but said “the right thing to do is to follow science and put people’s lives first, because we can and will recover from COVID’s economic upheaval. -19 that has gone wrong in our country. “
“What we can’t do is, you know, bring someone back to life,” he said.
Meanwhile, DeWine said it is “understandable” that people are upset given the length of the restrictions they have had to comply with.
“People are fed up with it, so I understand that. And we’ve asked people to make sacrifices,” he said. “But my message to the people of Ohio remains: we should do everything we can to save lives and hope for it. The vaccine is here. Now, it’s going to take a few months, you know, because everyone is. get it, but this is not the time to retire. This is not the time to give up. “