Political Quotes

“I am sure all of us are hearing a common question from our constituents, and that is, As we are starting to reopen our States, is it safe? Does our State have all it needs to safely reopen? It is now clear, as 50 States are starting to reopen, that they are doing so without having a vaccine in place--because a vaccine, at the earliest, will be available next year--and without therapeutic drugs that can minimize the healthcare risk of COVID-19. We are starting to reopen. So the question is: How do we safely reopen? Yes, we have the CDC guidelines, and we should be looking at the number of new infections in our States, at the number of deaths, and at the number of hospitalizations and be on a trend line that shows that the virus is under control before we reopen. Yet then there is a second element to safely reopening, and that is having adequate testing available in our communities. We need to have adequate testing so that we know where the COVID-19 virus is at any given time and so that we can trace those who come down with new infections in order that we don't have a massive communal spread of COVID-19, which would cause a second wave of misery for our communities and for our Nation. So these questions are being asked of me by people in Maryland: Can we safely reopen our businesses, and how will we go about doing that? Can we send our children to school? How about summer activities for our children? How about reopening places of worship?…”