Gov. Roy Cooper’s mantra during his rule of North Carolina by executive order has been that his decisions are based on “science, data and facts.”
But the fact is that governors in other states have looked at similar science, data and facts and decided it was time to reopen their states.
Georgia is very similar to North Carolina. The states have nearly the same population and are adjacent, but Georgia has had a very different reopening process.
Georgia ended its stay-at-home order and reopened many businesses including gyms and tattoo parlors on April 30. The result was widespread criticism. Even President Donald Trump said that he thought it was too early.
Some of the folks quoted as experts by the mainstream media predicted that Georgia would see a surge of new cases and some of those experts predicted that when that surge came, Georgia would be forced to reinstate the stay-at-home orders and close down the businesses that it had allowed to open like gyms and tattoo parlors.
It’s now been over a month since Georgia reopened for business and overall the testing data is not much different than North Carolina where Cooper still has not allowed bars and gyms to reopen and has much more restrictive policies than Georgia.
Two weeks after Georgia reopened in the middle of May, experts said that it might take longer, maybe until June, for the surge they were still predicting to show up in testing results. Now that it is June some experts say that it may take even longer for the surge to show up in the testing results.
Also, some experts point out that while Georgia is not mandating that people stay at home or that businesses remain closed that many people are staying at home of their own free will and businesses are practicing social distancing and requiring people to wear masks even when the state doesn’t require it.
In other words, the experts are saying that draconian measures that take away people’s rights might not be necessary because people in Georgia are smart enough to take care of themselves.
Perhaps the people in North Carolina are in fact as smart as the people in ,Georgia and if allowed to do so, the people of North Carolina would make smart decisions, continue to wash their hands frequently, wear masks when they were going to be closer than six feet to other people and when possible maintain social distancing.
Gov Cooper has done an excellent job with NC during this time. It shows he cares for this states people. Seems as though in stores people think they won’t catch this terrible plague, no masks,no gloves just breathing all over everyone. As far as counties around me we have seen a surge after phase 2. So this tells me we should stayed at phase 1 longer
No Gov Cooper has done a terrible job with NC. He thinks NC residents are to stupid to do the right things to keep their family safe. He does not care for the people of NC because Is is trying to commit economic suicide. The longer the lockdown last the more business’s will shut the doors for good and then the State will have to go bankrupt and Gov Cooper will then expect the Red States to bail NC out.
Can’t spend or make money if you are dead.
Yes I agree! I feel that governor Cooper was forced to go to phase 2. I have observed a lot of people in my area in North Carolina not wearing mask not staying 6 feet apart hopefully they’re washing their hands but that’s about all they’re doing
When you increase testing, of course you’ll see an increase in overall numbers. Percentage of positive cases compared to overall numbers and hospitalization rates remain low.
There has been no surge in cases in states that reopened. The hypocrisy of ordering businesses closed, people to stay home, and banning protests unless in line with the quasi-dictator’s group think is really quite disturbing.
Evidently you haven’t been pay attention. Hospitalizations are up, up, up and that has nothing to do with testing.
The closings of businesses and social distancing was always about flattening the curve. It was never about ending the virus. It was always about spreading it out. Fact it, we cannot kill our economy over a virus. It is stupid.
i disagree considering cooper wouldn’t let us open up and trump had to switch states, he will not be re-elected into office. he costed tons of companies to lose thousands of dollars. i understand that he cares about our safety but we should be smart enough to not mistreat freedom out again.
Good riddance to the RNC and Trump!
Cooper cares nothing about our safety! He cares about destroying the economy for politics.
Jan, You are absolutely correct and the SCIENCE and DATA tell the story. All numbers headed back in wrong direction after phase 2 opening. Evidently the people in NC are NOT as smart as the people in GA. Look at ACE speedway you are promoting in this rag as an example. Face masks and social distancing are haphazard at best all over the state. I think our Gov was doing a great job until the unrelenting political pressure started along with all the law suits. Evidently Darwin will fix this situation and that is sad.
I can tell you in my small town NC, most people are NOT adhering to social distancing, nor are they wearing masks. Too many people here think covid-19 is a hoax and they can’t be bothered with it. Life seems to be back to normal around here… except for what little has been mandated, such as restaurants seating at 50% capacity, bars are still closed, I’m not sure about tattoo parlors and salons.
Covids not as bad as the drug problem and the illegal immigrants that absolutely nothing’s being done about I really like them but no precedence of any laws unless all laws
Yeah, tell that to the 100,600+ dead Americans and counting.
Maybe you should stay home Lizzy. Let amazon and Publix deliver to you. If you do go out, wrap yourself in bubble wrap and run as fast as you can to get what you need then run back home. Maybe it won’t be able to catch you.
If you think roy cooper has done a good job you have rather been a sleep or hiding under a rock this man is no we’re to be found you can never reach him by phone they never answer the phones he is not trying to jobs here he just don’t care because he getting paid .
Dear Whatta,
According to your comments, English is not your first language, nor do you understand the basis for a quarantine. Unfortunately for many Americans, science was NOT a required course during their years of public education. I believe you are one of these unfortunate souls. According to the experts, viral incubation takes 3 to 14 days, meaning your Covid 19 symptoms will take some time to appear, thus the necessity to shut down human interaction. As this infection occurs via airborne particles and mucus membranes, social distancing and/or isolation will slow the rate of infection, hopefully allowing science to work towards a solution. What good is getting paid if you die before you can spend it? Think about Mr. Cooper’s job — to keep the citizens of NC safe, not rich. You can always get a new job, but unless you know something I don’t, you can’t come back from the dead.
gov. cooper sucks. we should have re-opened weeks ago. hope he has a career backup plan as his political career is toast. he was protesting with no mask, not 6′ apart, and with more than 25 people. what a joke. maybe jan should ask the governor she claims is keeping us “safe” to wash his hands.
Watching my television screen the last two weeks, I thought that Covid 19 no longer existed. Large crowds gathered across the country, some looting and burning, others participating in peaceful protest. Not a word about social distancing or spikes in hospitalizations, cases or deaths that could come from these gatherings. I assumed that they all thought it was a hoax and couldn’t be bothered with it. No mention of sacrificing people to the virus and death like the Georgia governor was being accused of a month ago. One thing not in short supply in America today….hypocrisy.