Washington – In the 10 months that the coronavirus has spread across the United States, governors have come together to fight a “common enemy”, leaning on each other to tackle the pandemic, said Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine, while reflecting on the challenges they faced facing the extraordinary public health crisis.
“I know this is not a time that any of us governors would have chosen to be, and yet it was our job to respond to this challenge and do what we needed to protect the people we serve,” Whitmer, a Democrat, said in an interview with DeWine, a Republican, on “Face the Nation.” “Instead of a broader national strategy, it was up to us to navigate. And I think we did that a lot together. “
Governors have been at the forefront of the response to the pandemic, implementing orders to mitigate the spread of the virus as they struggle with the economic consequences of the public health crisis that occurs once in a century. Although states have implemented varying degrees of measures to limit the spread of 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 reaches 664,000, and the death toll is more than 8,400. Across the country, the number of confirmed cases is 19 million, and more than 332,000 people died of COVID-19 in the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins University.
Whitmer and DeWine characterized the coronavirus as a “common enemy” that brought together governors from neighboring states as they pooled resources and experience to fight the pandemic.
“This virus does not stop at the state line. It does not stop at the party line. This is a common enemy,” said Whitmer. “And that’s always how we look at it, trying to learn from the best science. As a new virus, we learn an incredible amount. But when I share information with Governor DeWine and vice versa, I get the benefit of the Cleveland Clinic and everyone the experts he’s talking to and he gets the benefit of the University of Michigan and all the experts we’re talking to. “
DeWine said that governors across the midwest are now working together on strategies to prioritize which populations receive coronavirus vaccines first. He said that while there was consensus among those in the first batch – health workers and nursing home residents – he expects divisions when it comes to identifying those who will be the next to be vaccinated.
Both DeWine and Whitmer were targets of extreme vitriol and threats due to the orders they imposed to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Six men face federal charges over a plot to kidnap Whitmer because of his restrictions.
Whitmer said that all governors received reactions both for doing too much and for not doing enough, but said that “the right thing to do is to follow science and put people’s lives first, because we can and will recover from the blowback of COVID -19 that went crazy in our country. “
“What we can’t do is, you know, bring someone back to life,” she said.
DeWine, for his part, said it was “understandable” that people were upset about the length of restrictions they had to adhere to.
“People are tired of it, so I understand. And we ask people to make sacrifices,” he said. “But my message to the people of Ohio remains, we must do everything we can to save lives and the hope is there. The vaccine is here. Now, it will take a few months, you know, for everyone to receive it, but it’s not time to back off. It is not time to give up. “