Our press in Minnesota seems to be having a little difficulty coming up with right questions to ask the Governor about his actions in regard to the epidemic. Here are some suggestions:
Why do you keep telling Minnesotans the epidemic is dangerous when the data shows it has a minuscule risk to the vast majority of Minnesotans? How is this epidemic more dangerous to the general public than many other diseases or events?
Why don’t you tell the public the result of the testing in Worthington and what has happened with the cases?
Why aren’t you reassuring Minnesotans that if they become infected, 99% or more of them will be asymptomatic or have mild illness?
The outbreak in the United States started in a nursing home in Washington State. Other data showed that the elderly were hardest hit by the epidemic. Why did you wait so long to come up with a “battle plan” to protect residents of long-term care facilities?
Did you do any analyses, modeling or studies of any kind regarding jobs lost, businesses closed and other harms that might follow your orders, or other lesser measures that you could have ordered instead? If not, why not? If you did, why have those not been released to the public?
Why do you never have a chart that shows how many jobs have been lost, businesses closed, deaths, delayed health care and other harms that have resulted from your orders?
Why do you never have people who have lost jobs, had to close their businesses, been afraid to take their child to get a vaccine or a checkup or suffered other harms from your orders at the press conference?
How many jobs lost is too many?
How many businesses closing is too many?
How many lives lost due to suicide, drug or alcohol abuse or domestic or child abuse is too many?
How many lives lost or cases of worsened health due to deferred or foregone health care are too many?
Is a live lost to coronavirus worth more than a live lost because of your orders?
Do you believe your orders are causing no harm? If you think they are causing harm, why don’t you quantify those harms for us?
Aren’t Minnesotans entitled to see the economic and other harms caused by your orders so they can judge for themselves if they make sense?
Why is it okay for private sector workers to lose their jobs but you do nothing to cut state spending? Why don’t you show solidarity with the unemployed by foregoing your salary until your orders fully expire and the state’s economy has recovered.
Walz is way out over the tips of his skis, and a large pratfall is imminent. While his policies may have been “profitable” to the state when introduced in March, their true costs now greatly exceed the claimed benefits, and the concerns of the public grows louder and louder. Unfortunately, he remains in “analysis paralysis”, looking for a spreadsheet result that will tell him what to do, unable to take any meaningful action to lead the state out of the dilemma he has created. He may look like he is charge, but like all autocratic leaders, his lack of empathy for outstate Minnesota and his inability to be creative or to incorporate thoughtful input into his policies will bring his demise.