DeWine’s Office Declines to Comment on COVID Plan as Cases Surge

 

Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s office told The Ohio Star Thursday that it will not address concerns about whether the current protocols in place to end the COVID-19 are actually working.

The Star asked DeWine’s office if, amid the surge of Omicron variant COVID-19 cases, the governor’s office had any plan to implement new measures other than mandating mandates and encouraging vaccines that might help control the pandemic.

“Our office respectfully declines comment to you at this time,” DeWine’s Press Secretary Dan Tierney said by email.

Ohioans, including Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH-04) are becoming increasingly dismayed by efforts to end the pandemic that have not worked.

“Troops were discharged. Nurses were fired. Firefighters were let go. All because of a vaccine mandate that didn’t work,” Jordan said on Twitter Thursday.

Jordan also mocked the idea that masks have been effective in helping end the pandemic.

The Ohio Department of Health also declined to comment.

Meanwhile, The Star received an update from the Ohio Hospital Association (OHA) about the status of the virus on the state.

“There are 5,356 patients in Ohio hospitals inpatient services being treated for COVID-19 and 1,228 patients in hospitals’ ICU being treated for COVID-19,” Jim Palmer, OHA’s director of media and public relations said. “This is the most patients we have had in Ohio hospitals inpatient units being treated for COVID-19 since the pandemic began.”

There have been many reports that Omicron is a milder variant than previous ones.

“Omicron is still being assessed and spread remains a concern especially among the unvaccinated,” Palmer said.

This time two years ago, reports of the COVID-19 virus, then still a mysterious and unknown illness, started making its way from China to the United States.

Shortly thereafter, the United States began seeing cases.

On March 16, 2020, then-President Donald J. Trump initiated the infamous “15 Days to Slow the Spread” plan.

Friday is day 655.

President Joe Biden campaigned on ending the pandemic.

“I’m not going to shut down the country. I’m not going to shut down the economy. I’m going to shut down the virus,” he said at the time.

Earlier this week, before jetting off to his beach house in Delaware, Biden said there is “no federal solution” to the virus.

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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Mike DeWine” by Mike DeWine.