The federal government has been Fail Central on coronavirus response so far, and state and local officials are deciding that they have no choice but to take things into their own hands. What that means, though, is a patchwork of local plans rather than a coordinated effort led by the nation’s top public health experts.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that his state would start contracting with private labs for coronavirus testing. “CDC was a terrible bottleneck,” Cuomo said. “We had a tremendous pent-up demand for tests.” This announcement came a day after Cuomo imposed a containment area in New Rochelle.
Sacramento, California, has given up on quarantines, and is instead focusing on mitigation. “This has been mostly a state and local effort. The federal government has been sort of behind the times,” Dr. Peter Beilenson, the head of the county’s Department of Health Services, told Politico. “There clearly could have been testing kits available much more early than there were,” he added.
Santa Clara County, California, meanwhile, banned large public gatherings. Other local governments are operating on a case-by-case basis, with Boston canceling its St. Patrick’s Day parade but not yet making a decision to cancel the Boston marathon. The organizers of the New York International Auto Show postponed the event, but the city’s St. Patrick’s Day parade has not yet been canceled. Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday that he has “real concerns” about it, though, so that announcement may still be coming.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has banned events with more than 250 people, while Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear urged churches to cancel religious services, acknowledging that it’s a “big step.” However, he said, “I don’t believe whether you go to church during this period of time is a test of faith. I believe God gives us wisdom to protect each other and we should do that.”
Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who has been largely tied to the Trump administration’s policy of not doing very much to combat the pandemic, isn’t criticizing the local responses. ”They’re using their own individual judgment and, to me, I think that would be prudent,” he said Monday.