The governor of Michigan seems to be enjoying lockdown a little too much.
Oddly enough, she considers this a flattering picture. What a Karen!
A number of medications are being tried to see if they affect the Corona Virus - some anti-viral drugs, some arthritis drugs, and some malarial drugs. When people are dying, it would seem to make sense to at least try these drugs, rather than wait years for "double-blind placebo" tests to be evaluated - which may come too little, too late to be of use. Some are reported as actually working - despite the naysayers, including academics and government officials who have yet to see a single patient.
The governor of Michigan threatened doctors with sanctions if they even tried one of these drugs on patients. She also threatened pharmacists if they filled such prescriptions and even ancillary "health professionals" if they failed to report such prescriptions. Nothing like the heavy hand of government! Read the letter - it is chilling.
Then, when it turned out that the "optics" were bad on this and some people might have been helped by these drugs, they did an about-face and asked for a share of the national stockpile - added to by the folks at Bayer chemical.
Um, this doesn't play well. Threatening people for using a drug just because Trump promotes it was a dumb move. As I noted before, what if it actually worked? You'd look like a fool, then, and the families of the dead might not vote for you! If it didn't work, well, then, what's the harm? Staking out a position on this based on being "Mr. Opposite" of Donald Trump is just, well, dumb.
Sadly, it seems that governors of many "blue states" are acting all Al Haig "I'm in charge here!" and doing things merely for the sake of appearing to do things. Lock down this, close that, if Gladys Kravits calls and complains about something, shut it down!
Yes, it makes sense to take rational measures to combat the virus. But they should be as minimally invasive as possible and also reasonable and not arbitrary - and not based on Facebook hysteria. They should be effective. Wear masks, use gloves, stay home if possible, use social distancing. But telling a family that lives together that they cannot go for a walk in the park together? It makes no freaking sense.
Bear in mind that not all of Michigan is Detroit. In the Upper Peninsula, "social distancing" means waving to your neighbors from your pickup truck. Arbitrary restrictions that make sense in crowded cities and nursing homes make less sense in places like Lapeer.
I really hope that Biden doesn't select Gretchen as his running mate. Some feel that she is grandstanding this virus thing to raise her profile - but it could backfire. Some in Michigan are complaining she is too conservative of all things, and in the pocket of Blue Cross, Blue Shield, who funded her campaign. Her father was CEO of the company, and not surprisingly, she is against "single payer" health insurance.
This lady is a Democrat? Picking her as VP would surely piss off the Bernie Bros - if they were ever going to vote Biden in the first place.
Michigan has a lot of other problems on its plate. It has the highest car insurance rates in the nation (ironically, for the State housing the "motor city") and Karen - excuse me, Gretchen - vetoed a bill to reduce car insurance rates in that State. And by "highest" that means 25% higher then the next-highest state (and well more than twice what we pay here in Georgia).
Um, why do people live in Blue States, again? The politics are fun and all, but the costs are murder. As is the murder rate. But I digress. Or did I?
Sadly, Ms. Whitmer represents what a lot of "progressives" detest about old-line Democratic politics - paying lip-service to progressive causes, while selling out the Statehouse to the highest bidder, in this case, Blue Cross.
And we thought Trump was a rolling, flaming, dumpster fire!
Let's not replace one with another - one even more crass and calculating.