DeWine and Whitmer on the fight against ‘common enemy’ during pandemic

Washington – In the ten months that the coronavirus has spread across the United States, governors have come together to fight a ‘common enemy’, leaning on each other to navigate the pandemic, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Ohio Governor , Mike DeWine, said as they reflect on the challenges they have faced the extraordinary public health crisis.

‘I know this is not a moment in which one of our governors would prefer to be in, and yet it was our job to take on this challenge and do what we had to do for the people we serve. , to protect, ‘Whitmer, a Democrat, said in an interview with DeWine, a Republican, about’ Face the Nation ‘. “Instead of a broader national strategy, it was really us who had to navigate. And I think we did a lot of that together.”

Governors were at the helm of responding to the pandemic and carried out orders to mitigate the spread of the virus while battling the economic consequences of the once-in-a-century public health crisis. While states have introduced varying degrees of measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus, no state has been spared.

In Michigan, there were more than 515,000 confirmed infections and more than 12,680 deaths. In Ohio, the number of confirmed cases is 664,000, and the death toll is more than 8,400. Nationwide, the number of confirmed cases stands at 19 million, and more than 332,000 people have died in the U.S. from COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Both Whitmer and DeWine characterized the coronavirus as a ‘common enemy’ that united neighboring governors as they pooled resources and expertise to combat the pandemic.

“This virus does not stop at the state line. It does not stop at the party line. It is a common enemy,” Whitmer said. “And that’s always been how we looked at it and tried to learn from the best science. It’s a new virus, but we’ve learned an incredible amount. But if I share information with Governor DeWine and vice versa, I get the benefit. of the Cleveland Clinic and all the experts he talks to, and he gets the benefit of the University of Michigan and all the experts we talk to. ‘

DeWine said governors across the Middle East are working closely together on strategies to prioritize which populations get coronavirus vaccines. He said there was consensus among those in the first group – health care workers and nursing home residents – but he expects there will be divisions when it comes to identifying those who will be next to get their shots.

Both DeWine and Whitmer were targets for extreme vitriol and threats due to the mandates they imposed on them to limit the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Six men are facing federal charges over a conspiracy to kidnap Whitmer over her restrictions.

Whitmer said every governor has had setbacks because he has done too much and not done enough, but said the “right thing to do is to follow science and put people’s lives first because we can and we will recover from the economic downturn of COVID -19 that went on a rampage in our country. ‘

“What we can not do is make you come alive again,” she said.

Meanwhile, DeWine said it was “understandable” that people were upset, given the duration of the restrictions they had to comply with.

“People are tired of it, so I understand that. And we asked people to make sacrifices,” he said. “But my message to the people of Ohio is still: we must do everything in our power to save lives, and the hope is there. The vaccine is here. Now, it’s going to take a few months for everyone to get it. “But this is not the time to retire. This is not the time to give up.”

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