Lars Thoughts – The Pacific Northwest can’t afford fumbling leadership, but that’s what we have

The Pacific Northwest can’t afford fumbling leadership, but that’s what we have.  Washington Governor Jay Inslee waited till wednesday to announce a ban on large gatherings but for no clear reason gave an exception to schools.  Then Oregon’s Governor followed Thursday with a carbon copy of Inslee’s plan but said schools would stay open and Brown mentioned lunch and breakfast as the main reasons.  Inslee then closed some schools yesterday but not all of them…and late last night,

after teacher unions demanded closures, Kate Brown acted.  Nearly a week ago health officials told me they were getting coronavirus testing going through private labs and hospitals.  Wednesday Kate Brown repeated that promise. As of this morning, the Daily Dead Fishwrapper reports private testing still hasn’t arrived.  You will hear plenty of criticism of the President in all the stories about coronavirus but I’d remind you of two things. First, the Constitution and law put the primary responsibility for public health on the states…not the CDC.  Second, the President put flight restrictions on China more than a month ago (January 31) when we only had 20 cases in our country. This morning the official number is 1700 and we may have thousands more that we can’t count.

 

-Lars Larson

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