May 6, 2020

Gov. Hogan looks like he's done with concern over testing Marylanders, angling to open our state

Hogan saying he needs to see 'a few more days' of what he says are downward trends shows how eager he is to pull the rug out from under those Marylanders whose workplaces still carry un acceptable risk. I have to think it's more about paying workers unemployment benefits, than any sound policy focused on our safety.

What's become of testing Marylanders outside of these 'hot spots?' What we know about asymptomatic infections should give pause to any assertion that numbers of infected residents are going down. It's impossible to tell how many have contracted the virus with only 500k (and dropping) test kits that he's been bragging about - it's a farce.

Why isn't Md. testing grocery store workers, for instance? So much public traffic is focused on grocery stores. Neglecting to test workers provides a hidden threat, waiting, I suppose, for some tragic turn to draw the governor's attention. That's not proactive, it's folly.

Further, we've yet to see the impact of the outbreaks in nursing homes and meat plants in the state. The governor's myopic focus on the numbers he says are declining ignore the impact we should expect in these workers' communities, among families and friends.

You want to mingle with an infected poultry plant worker at the beach? A nursing or retirement home resident fresh out from one of the states' hundreds of outbreak sites?

What happened to determining whether reinfection can occur? What about the murky immunity question?

I'm a night grocery worker and tomorrow our store will test every worker's temp before their shift. That's fine, but wholly inadequate to anyone actually concerned with how many workers have been infected. Right now, Gov. Hogan is transitioning to a crap shoot. Russian roulette. His true republican self back in action, it seems.


https://twitter.com/wjz/status/1258118474221727745

https://twitter.com/wjz/status/1257691855099179010

https://twitter.com/GovLarryHogan/status/1258110019888992256