Before his announcement Wednesday, Kemp had come under pressure to expand earlier orders that closed bars and nightclubs, but not restaurants, and limited the size of many public gatherings. Saying extreme measures would cripple the economy in regions relatively untouched by the virus, Kemp had rejected arguments that a failure to act more boldly would cause a further strain on Georgia’s health care system, resulting in more deaths.What was that "new information", you might ask?
But new information about the virus’ spread, Kemp said Wednesday, was “a game-changer.”
Kemp said he was “finding out that this virus is now transmitting before people see signs.”Damn near everyone else in the country, if not the world, has known for months that the coronavirus can be transmitted by people who are asymptomatic or presymptomatic. That's the rationale for "social distancing", which is why nearly ten million Americans have been thrown out of work in a two week period of time.
“Those individuals could have been infecting people before they ever felt bad, but we didn’t know that until the last 24 hours,” he said.
But, apparently, the reasons for all of that never penetrated the meters-thick skull of Brian Kemp.
Until now.
4 comments:
You might remember Gov. Kemp from his tight election win over Stacy Abrams. The one where voting machines broke down in minority dominated voting districts in the Atlanta area leading to long delays to vote, and the actual closing of voting locales in minority dominated, rural counties. The kicker was when he claimed that the state Democratic party had tried to hack the state election website with absolutely no proof--three days before the election. After a year+ long investigation, no evidence was found to support the charges of hacking. Because it never took place. What a peach!
Florida governor Desantis says "Hold my beer."
What Steve J said.
An exemption for religious gatherings? Really? An EO saying state policy supersedes local policy?
As for Kemp, as Driftglass pointed out this morning, he works six miles from the CDC, so his claim of ignorance is sorta hard to swallow.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
A professor at Georgia Tech sent the state government an email on March 2 warning them of asymptomatic/presymptomatic transmission. They had a month.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
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