Top Physicians Criticize McKee’s Reopening, Dr. Fine Calls for More Restrictions Now
Wednesday, March 31, 2021
Two of Rhode Island’s top physicians are criticizing the decision to roll back coronavirus restrictions.
Currently, all three of the Rhode Island Department of Health's major indicators -- hospitalizations, percent positive, and new cases per week -- are increasing.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe New York Times ranks Rhode Island as having the 5th highest cases per 100,000.
“We have been through this movie before and it boggles my mind that Governors across the country are unwilling to hold on just a little bit longer in order to protect people,” said Brown University’s Megan Ranney, an emergency room physician. She made the comments to CNN.
Governor Dan McKee has repeatedly lifted restrictions for a range of businesses.
Former Rhode Island Director of Health Dr. Michael Fine on GoLocal LIVE on Tuesday was critical of McKee’s decisions to expand indoor dining, bar usage and hours and a range of other business environments -- and called for them to be reversed.
Rhode Island’s “Snowflake Response”
“I didn’t think we should reduce restrictions to begin with. I think that was an error, and now we’re seeing the product of that error," said Fine. "We need to clamp down if we’re going to save lives and prevent hospitalizations. We have to work harder than we’re working. We have to up our testing game, and ensure people are masking and social distancing and enforce all this stuff — instead of continuing to do what I call our snowflake response."
On Tuesday, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky forewarned that numbers are going in the wrong direction.
“I'm going to reflect on the recurring feeling I have of impending doom," Walensky said. "We do not have the luxury of inaction. For the health of our country, we must work together now to prevent a fourth surge."
"The thing that’s different this time is we actually have it in our power to be done with this scale of vaccination and that will be so much slower if we have another surge to deal with as well," Walensky said.
“I’m speaking today not necessarily as your CDC director, but as a wife, as a mother, as a daughter to ask you to just please hold on a little while longer. I so badly want to be done. I know you all so badly want to be done. We are just almost there, but not quite yet,” she said.
Fine responding to Walensky’s comments said, “I’m not sure I’ve heard the head of the CDC make such a dramatic statement exactly — there are style differences between people — I think you have to take this one very seriously. She is seeing another surge, as we’ve been seeing another surge for a couple of weeks now. I think we’ve got to cop to the nation that it’s happening. And we need to be pulling out all the stops to get it stopped.”
McKee Defends Decisions
Andrea Palagi, spokesperson for McKee defended the repeated decisions to lessen restrictions. “Governor McKee and the Rhode Island Department of Health have taken an incremental approach to lifting restrictions in Rhode Island to ensure we are reopening responsibly and safely. Unlike the approach taken by some other states,” said Palagi.
“Rhode Island has been measured in its reopening and we’ve continued common-sense requirements related to mask-wearing and social distancing. And we are still limiting the size of social gatherings in Rhode Island. The Department of Health will continue to closely monitor Rhode Island’s public health numbers and our vaccination progress throughout the reopening process,” added Palagi.
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