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I was initially really proud of our state’s response to COVID-19. We shut down relatively early, our state epidemiologist @DrAngelaCDunn was always front and center in updates, and messaging was centered on doing what was best for public health. #utpol https://www.propublica.org/article/politicians-and-business-interests-pushed-health-officials-aside-to-control-reopening-then-cases-exploded
But things changed fast once the Utah Legislature threw a fit because they weren't being consulted on every decision by the Governor made during an emergency, and then muscled its way into the process by threatening to derail the state's response.
They started pressuring the Governor to change risk levels even though the underlying data didn't line up with those changes. Then they started messing with those risk levels to make them meaningless. They pressured the government to start chasing snake oil miracle drugs.
They took away the ability for local leaders to make community-led decisions. They decided that economic concerns outweighed the public health concerns, and led our state's response in that direction. And now we've all been seeing the consequences of this legislative pressure.
Of course, there are members of the legislature who have medical backgrounds and they were raising red flags and sounding the alarms. But they weren't being listened to. Instead, it was the legislative leaders who set the agenda and pushed through their priorities.
These legislative leaders are mostly business owners. You saw that most of them were mentioned in this article about receiving PPP loans, with Hemmert (one of the central lawmakers in the legislative response) saying he lost 80% of his business. https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2020/07/20/utah-lawmakers-who/
These lawmakers who were facing significant financial losses due to the state shutdown were then the ones who led the charge to open the state back up too fast, ignoring their colleagues and other medical experts who warned them about going down this path.
