INDIANAPOLIS – I’m not an epidemiologist. Or a scientist. Remember, Governor Eric Holcomb says he heeds their counsel before making any decision. Public health experts from around the state aren’t enthusiastically endorsing Holcomb’s hasty dropping of most of the state’s COVID restrictions just weeks ahead of his reelection.
“I am not sure what he is seeing that gives him the confidence to do that,” said Dr. Mark Fox, the county’s deputy health officer.
Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis professor of health policy and management
“The risk is that people will see…a change in state as an invitation to relax their own diligence and personal behavior,” said Joshua Vest, professor of health policy and management at the Fairbanks School of Public Health at IUPUI. “That’s a big risk.”
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“It sounds nice to say let’s say just try it out and see what happens. That could come with a cost – increased transmissions, increased infections,” Vest said. “There are many negative outcomes that could occur.”
“Politics has had something to do with the pandemic, from the very beginning, and I think politics will have a part to play until the last minute of it,” [Angela Cox, Henry County Health Department Administrator] said.
“The really sad part of this is, even though we went to 5.0 with the governor today, that really does not change the transmissibility or the lethality of the virus,” Spear said.
Indiana University Assistant Director of Public and Environmental Health
McKeen admits he was “a little bit shocked” and “a little dismayed” by Holcomb’s decision.
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