Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The people who seem to think Elrich (or Gayles, or the Council) saved them from COVID make no sense to me. Frankly, its the people around here's risk tolerance and behaviors that helped. Heck, there hasn't been a single case of COVID in Bethesda in three weeks, positivity rate of 0, virtually every single person over 12 vaccinated, and still nearly everyone is wearing a mask in stores. People around here did, in general, way less indoor gatherings than most during the pandemic (and a good chunk of the country just went about life as normal....). Those are the things that got us where we are, not because you didn't watch your kids soccer game outdoors in a mask, or because your kid didn't go to school for over a year.
On the other hand, Elrich and Co. supported keeping MCPS shut for way way too long, upheld ridiculous restrictions on outdoor masked youth sports and spectator limits in massive open air spaces with masked spectators, went nuts and accused Hogan of opening too early and begged him to back off (they were wrong and the numbers have plummeted), complained and blamed Hogan for everything about vaccine rollout with misleading and often inaccurate numbers, kept public libraries shut, and supported some of the most mind-boggling inconsistent COVID restrictions that favored certain businesses or industries over others with no connection to real data and science.
"Not dying" from COVID is only part of the equation. A real leader does the tough risk based assessment. There's a lot more at stake with education, mental health, physical health, financial health and protecting local business, and taking accountability and ownership as a leader.
I would never vote for him again. Big mistake last time. Out of touch with certain realities of life or how to make the tough decisions. The pandemic exposed the downsides of a Takoma Park liberal who really only knows how to focus on social justice, equity and environmental issues (that I happen to agree with him on, just that's its only part of being a leader) and not actually manage a 1.1 million person county with difficult decisions and so much at stake.
This. You just need to look at neighboring counties, with similar risks and populations to compare.
MoCo started opening libraries a few weeks ago. Fairfax had them open for 2 months before.
MCPS was unable to adjust the schedule to allow more kids to go in-person (or let the in-person go for more days per week) this Spring. FCPS was able to pull it off.
Gayles overruled private school reopening last fall without ever reviewing their safety plans. Luckily Hogan overruled Gayles on that one.
Elrich is a nice guy as a person (I've met him many times), but a terrible manager.
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