Arizona is now No. 1 in the nation for COVID-19 spread and where is Gov. Doug Ducey?
Opinion: Arizona now has the country's highest transmission rate of COVID-19 and still Gov. Doug Ducey does nothing to try to slow it down.
Laurie Roberts
Congratulations, Arizona. When it comes to spreading COVID-19, we are now No. 1.
Remember the good old days when Gov. Doug Ducey’s office would announce Arizona’s R-naught numbers every day? That was late summer, when Arizona was under 1, indicating the highly contagious virus was no longer spreading.
These days, you won’t see Team Ducey touting where Arizona stands when it comes to the spread of the novel coronavirus. That’s because it’s now spreading faster in Arizona than anywhere else in the nation, with an R-naught of 1.22.
Put another way, Arizona now has the highest transmission rate of COVID-19 in the country, with the average infected person now passing along the disease to 1.22 people.
If you’ve been paying attention, you could see this coming.
Governor has had plenty of warnings
Public health officials have been telling us that things were getting worse. The research teams modeling the disease at Arizona State University and University of Arizona have been predicting a “catastrophe” was headed our way.
The rapidly filling hospitals have been warning us that soon they may have to resort to crisis standards of care, where doctors must decide who will get treatment and who won’t, who will live and who will die.
Heck, Ducey's own metrics, reported daily by the state Arizona Department of Health Services, have been blasting out a klaxon call for weeks now.
And what did Ducey do to in response to try to slow the spread the disease that has now taken the lives of more than 7,000 Arizonans?
No statewide mandate to wear masks. No order to close bars or to end indoor restaurant dining. No requirement that visitors to our state get tested or quarantine upon arrival to try to prevent further spread the disease.
No ban on youth sports tournaments that each draw hundreds of teams from across the nation.
He won't even abide by his own public health benchmarks and order closures of bars, theaters and gyms in Apache, Navajo and Yavapai counties, though all three have recorded a "substantial" spread of the virus for two straight weeks.
Meanwhile, here’s a look Arizona’s monthly COVID-19 case totals, compiled by the Arizona Capitol Times’ Dillon Rosenblatt:
- July: 94,562.
- November: 80,871.
- The first 10 days of December: 60,712.
And we haven't even yet hit the holidays, when the disease will spread faster than the Christmas spirit.
What Ducey can - and should - do
I can understand why Ducey has rebuffed calls for curfews and shutdowns. There's no evidence that curfews work and should he try to impose another lockdown, he’d be smelling tar and spitting out feathers.
The downside of shutting down the state’s economy is just too dire.
But our governor could offer help to the tens of thousands of Arizonans who are unemployed, the ones now forced to get by on a maximum of $240 a week in unemployment pay should they even qualify for that princely sum.
He could offer help to the people who are a month or a week or maybe just a few days away from being evicted because they no longer can afford rent.
He could order that masks be worn anytime you are out in public and unable to maintain a distance. He could lead the effort to help restaurants and other businesses move outdoors.
He could at long last thumb his nose at the Andy Biggs and Paul Gosars of the world (they hate him anyway) – the people who see COVID-19 as a hoax or a government conspiracy.
Or he could continue to do … nothing.
This, as Arizona reported 4,928 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Thursday and another 73 dead.
So, wash your hands, I guess.
Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com.