Kemp doubles down on reopening Georgia despite criticism from Trump, COVID-19 experts

Governor Brian Kemp defended his choice to begin opening the Georgia economy during an hour-long press conference on Monday, bristling at questions about criticisms from President Donald Trump and statements from health experts that state data and models do not support Kemp’s decision.

Kemp was widely criticized last week for the move, which has allowed for nonessential businesses such as hair salons, gyms and bowling alleys to reopen as well as the dining rooms of restaurants.

Kemp and state health commissioner Kathleen Toomey also addressed questions regarding a need for more contact tracing around the state.

‘The governor is looking at many things’

Trump twice criticized Kemp last week, stating it was “too soon” to re-open the state even after he had previously claimed to support the governor.

Despite that, Kemp said Monday he appreciates what the president is doing.

“He said it best today, the media wants to continue to divide us during this period, but let me assure you, there will be no dividing,” he said. “We’re going to continue to work with administration, and the president, and the vice president, and the task force.”

In a tense back and forth, Kemp was pressed by a member of the media to state what data he had used to make the decision as it does not meet the White House’s criteria for two weeks of decline in new coronavirus cases. Kemp would not state what specific data he considered, but told reporters that all of the data he used to make the decision is available on the state’s department of public health website. He then referred them to Toomey.

Toomey said the state had met some but not all of the criteria set out by Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House Coronavirus Task Force response coordinator, to trigger reopening the state.

“We were approaching a plateauing which made us feel it would be safe to move forward because we had three things in place: we had adequate hospital capacity...we have adequate testing capacity...and we are ramping up our contact tracing capacity,” Toomey said. “The governor is looking at many things, not just the data we have, and I respect his right to do that and I will work very hard to ensure that Georgians are protected and safe throughout this process.”

Kemp was also met with questions about research that shows he may be inviting a new wave of infection this summer.

“It’s a very big risk,” Dr. Marc Lipsitch, a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “If you open up enough, it’s almost for certain (the virus) will hit Georgia again. It’s just waiting for more susceptible people and more contacts. That’s how viruses work.”

Kemp would not tell reporters what particular models he considered when deciding to re-open the state.

“Whenever you take a step, your model changes. It’s like you almost get punished for taking a step, depending on what model you’re looking at,” Kemp said. “So we’re not just relying on one model, we’re relying on Dr. Toomey, what her team is seeing on the ground every day.”

Opening businesses

Though he did not cite specific data or numbers to back up his choice, Kemp referred repeatedly to the economic loss the coronavirus pandemic has created, putting “people on the verge of losing everything that they’ve got.” He shared a story about a woman who had reopened her salon to keep from losing her car.

“As the president said and as I know as a small business guy for 30 years, there’s going to be businesses that we saw before this that we won’t see after it,” Kemp said. “And that will take a heavy toll on our local communities as well as our state, and I know that firsthand.”

Kemp thanked the state’s businesses that have decided to reopen, as well as those that have not reopened.

“It was not a mandate, there is a lot of people that have decided to wait and I support that 100%,” he said. “If they can weather the storm, they don’t need to open.”

With the statewide shelter-in-place order expiring on Thursday, Kemp said he hasn’t decided what the next step will be.

“We’re going to be making some decisions most likely in the next couple of days of what the next week, two weeks, or month looks like...I just haven’t made those decisions yet,” he said. “But one thing we know for sure, the medically fragile, our nursing home order, that’s staying in effect until May 13, that is that vulnerable population we’ve got to continue to hunker down on.”

Testing and tracing the virus

Other items discussed during the press conference included testing capacity and contact tracing.

Toomey said the state has relaxed the parameters needed to receive a COVID-19 test, and a media campaign will start soon to encourage the public to get tested if they have symptoms.

“Right now we are hoping to do thousands and thousands of tests within the next two weeks,” she said.

Toomey also said the state is expanding its contact tracing, which is finding people who’ve come in contact with someone infected with COVID-19. She said contact tracing was done early on in the epidemic, but the capacity wasn’t available at a statewide level.

“By the time we fully develop our partnerships over the next several weeks...we expect we will have as many as 1,000 people in Georgia with our plan working together with us,” she said.

Officials at local health districts in Columbus and Macon recently said contact tracing there is not possible.

“When there are a few cases of something, that’s when they’d do that contact tracing and have the time to really research. But in a pandemic there are just so many cases,” said Pamela Kirkland, spokesperson for the West Central Health District in Columbus. “It just kind of snowballs and they aren’t able to keep up. ...We’re doing the best we can do.”

This story was originally published April 27, 2020 at 7:54 PM with the headline "Kemp doubles down on reopening Georgia despite criticism from Trump, COVID-19 experts."