American Enterprise Institute about his States Coronavirus response and the federal response to the pandemic. This is about half an hour. Thank you for joining us today. Were here with governor larry hogan of maryland to talk about the challenges we face as a country, grappling with the covid pandemic and some of the things that pamaryland has doneo deal with their epidemic of covid spread. This is really an unprecedented time of Global Pandemic. The Intelligence Community had long warned us about the risks of a pandemic and put it on par with risks of weapons of mass destruction and counterterrorism and cyber attack. As much as we thought we were prepared for this as a nation, we found going through this episode that we really didnt have all the preparations that we thought we had. And weve been unable to find, as a nation, a medium between allowing this virus to spread in a way thats causing a lot of death and suffering and strict lockdown, something thats acceptable to enough people that we can implement some kind of approach that enough people find socially and culturally and economically acceptable. So, were continuing to see spread around the nation, particularly in the south right now. Maryland is among states that have grappled with epidemic spread and managed to really crush the epidemic and bring virus levels down. So i wanted to talk to the governor today about the things that he did to try to control the epidemic here in the state, restart a lot of the activity in the state, try to bring back to marylanders what was important to them with respect to trying to open schools and restart the economy and do the things that are important to people and preserve those things that are important to people even amidst continued risk from this ep demic and the risk that it comes back at some point this fall. So, governor, thank you for joining us. I want to start with a question just generally. What do you think is going to evolve . What are you looking at with respect to the fall . What do you think the risks are right now . First of all, dr. Gottlieb, let me just thank you for hosting here today. I want to thank aei. Its a real honor to be here with you. Thank you for your service and giving us advice throughout this thing and serving on our Coronavirus Task force. Its been invaluable. I think youre obviously one of the most important voices and leaders in this entire pandemic. So, thank you for everything youve done. Its been a pleasure working with you. I look forward to discussion today. I think as we move forward, were concerned, as everybody else is, looking at whats happening around the country. Weve really we were very early and aggressive in trying to go after this, thanks to the advice from smart people like you and aeis plan that they put out early on. We took a lot of that advice from people like Johns Hopkins and university of maryland, smart doctors and ep deem yol deemologists and Public Health officials. Luckily our numbers are looking pretty good. Our Positivity Rate has been on a flat and slightly declining level for at least three weeks now. Were better than whats going on in a lot of places, but were very concerned about seeing the spikes in places all around the country. Were not immune to that, and this virus doesnt recognize borders. Were concerned about how this might spread into the fall, especially as we think about not only how do we restart our economy, how do we get kids back to learning again, back into schools if we can do it in a safe way and how this is going to affect us when we run into the confluence with the flu season. So, its, as you know, nowhere near behind us. Were going to be struggling with this for a long time. Can you talk a little bit about what maryland did to try to get the levels down, what you think this state did that was successful . And was there anything that you did in this state that was different than what other states might have done that would be Lessons Learned . Im not sure if we did things that were that different. We may have taken action quicker than other states and been a little bit more aggressive. The very first day that we got our very first case first of all, i think we started watching this in january when we first started hearing about what was going on in china. We had a great the National Governors association in february. We had a great presentation from the federal governments top experts, kind of gave us awareness of what might be happening, advised the governors. We were watching it. On top of it, our whole team, Emergency Management professionals, our whole cabinet and Health Department was ready and trying to be prepared in advance. And when our first case broke out in march, i immediately within hours declared a state of emergency, and it set off a succession of, i think, maybe 40 executive orders rolling back and tightening down things to try to every time we got advice about what could help us save lives and keep people safe, we took those actions quickly. I think i was the first or maybe governor dewine in ohio and i simultaneously closed our schools. We were the first to do so. We took action to first shut down casinos and large events and restaurants and bars and then stayathome order and masking and all those kinds of things. And then we had a safe which you helped us come up with really good advice on a safe, gradua gradual and effective reopening plan that kept many of those things in place. And now weve had our economy open. 98 of our economy is allowed to open but in a safe, manageable way. We kept all of our essential businesses open throughout this pandemic. And while obviously its impacted us economically, were doing much better economically than most other states as well. Our Unemployment Rate is 8 . Many states are 23 or 25 . You talk about that meeting that you pulled together for the National Governors association where you brought in those experts in february. That was early on. Yeah, first week of february. Before a lot of people were focused on this. What inspired you to do that . What was the mood in that meeting, in the meeting and coming out of it . Was that a key moment . It was interesting. We have a couple of days where all the governors descend on washington. Its the annual meeting of the governors association. We had a full agenda. This was not on the agenda, but we squeezed it in because lest lets get this emergency meeting in. And we had dr. Redfield. We had anthony fauci, and we had a couple other key leaders from the Administration Come in to talk to us. It was right before we had to switch into tuxedos to go to the white house dinner that night, which is an annual event. And everybody was complaining about we cant do another meeting. Weve got to change clothes and get ready to go to this dinner. But we stressed how important this was going to be. I can tell you when we heard from these experts at the federal level what we were going to be faced with as they talked about this is potentially more contagious than sars,that the death toll could be, you know, really bad, that this is going to be spreading like wild fire, that this is going to be at the time i think we had just had the cases in the state of washington. We just heard the news about the outbreak in the first nursing home that was all over the television. But it wasnt yet spread across the country. And every governor, most of the governors, i think, left that day, left that meet something what shocked but very aware and very concerned about weve got to take immediate action. I know i came back to my office the day after that. We had already been working on it for a month or so. And said we are going into high gear. Yeah, youve talked about the challenges. You wrote in the Washington Post recently about some of the challenges and in your book as well, getting Testing Services into the state and country. This state has done better than other states. Testing about 25,000 people a day, continuing to ramp, building out a facility at the university of maryland to do additional level. What do you think we could do on a National Level to better support and states and labs to get better testing. When this collides with flu season, everyone who has any kind of flulike symptoms is now going to need to get ruled out for covid. So, were going to need to put more strain on testing. So, there was an oped in the Washington Post a few days wasnt really about the current story. It was an excerpt from the book talking about the early stages of this pandemic where i think we could have taken more steps to develop a National Testing strategy. But we i think weve done a better job of getting testing ramped up not only in our state but across the country. But now were running into problems again where states are having shortages. Theres lines where the labs are so overloaded that theyre taking up to ten days or even longer to get tests back. Thats almost worthless. You cant really make decisions based on somebody that got found positive ten days late. So, we here developed a longterm testing strategy back in april. We acquired a massive kind of Strategic Lab and other facilities all over our state. And we have a plan that lasts us through the fall strategically because were concerned. Our lab we built our own lab at the university of maryland with state of the artu robotics. We can turn around our tests when we need ton these outbreaks and clusters in 24 hours, 48 hours at the latest, where were seeing private labs backed up ten days or two weeks. Im concerned were going to have to keep working so we dont have these issues in the fall with the flu comes out. Chapt 38 titled Global Pandemic you observed following the marylands counties that the pandemic is quote going to be the most important challenge of our lives. You specifically remark, quote, as diverse a group we are republicans, democrat action, urban, rural, suburban, we could all feel the weight of the moment. We were all in this together even if none of us knew what this was. There was so much to be done. Weve seen a lot of shifts in the public mood over the last decade or so. Weve seen a lot of shifts recently as a result of the pandemic were grappling with. What do you think the majority of voters are looking for now . How has this pandemic sort of reshaped public mood, if you will . Its a great question. Look, i think this 2020 has been the most difficult year that any of us have probably gone through, everybody in america. Its really challenged leaders at the federal, state and local level, but its really challenged everyday americans, Small Business owner, people who have lost their job, people who have gone through the tragedy of losing a loved one or going through fighting this illness. Its impacked almost every packt every aspect of society. It will continue to do so for quite some time. I believe it will continue through the fall and into early next year until we can get a vaccine. None of us really expected to go through this. It is the biggest challenge i know ive ever had to deal with, and ive been through some challenges before. I think how we deal with this crisis will be a defining moment for america. Its really going to take everybody at the federal, state and local level as well as the private sector all working together to try and come out of this and bring our economy back and get the Health Crisis under control. I want to. Just touch on the book again. A very clear theme in the book is the importance of transparency. On page two 93 you say, quote, we have overwhelming public support after shutting down dining rooms, gyms and movie theaters. We were so clear about explaining the reasoning behind these drastic actions. You received from government officials in your official briefing, you talk about leveling with the American People. The way we go about our daily lives and our work is going to be significantly different. To pretend otherwise would be dishonest. What advice could you give to other leaders about this kind of candor in a moment of crisis . Leveling with people. Not just about what you know and calling on collective action, but what we do not know which was a lot of things with respect to covid. I think its probably one of the most important things at a time like this. When theres so much in certainty and the American People are scared and worried about the future and have so many questions. They are looking to leaders and to smart people like you who know much more about these diseases than they do, to give them clear, unfiltered advice and guidance. They want the facts as directly as possible. Even if you are delivering bad news or things they dont want to hear, i think its just important to be as frank and direct and open as possible. Ive said, not just to be critical, but ive said to the president one of the mistakes i think they made is not communicating clearly. Weve had some great discussions with some of the top leaders in the administration. The Vice President leading the Coronavirus Task force. The president would Say Something almost completely opposite to what all of them were saying. That communicating is essential. Particularly in a crisis. Ive tried to be straightforward and direct all the time, but in it crisis its even more important. January 19th of this year was the day that they announced that the cases had gone from 50 to 200 and wuhan. It was a turning point of sorts. I remember where i was during that day and the phone calls i made right after that. It was the first time the chinese said they believed there was a sustained human to human transmission. Whos the first time we had evidence that there is transmission between people. On that monday i believe it was, they actually announced that about a dozen people or so doctors had been infected. We are almost exactly six months from that point. Its remarkable that its that short a period of time. It feels longer. Exactly. I think it reinforces how much we do not know. Were only six months into this. Given all the uncertainty, Everyone Wants to send kids back to school, you are focused on that. We recognize the importance of getting kids back into the classroom. How are you grappling with that . Trying to get kids back in school but doing it safely, given theres a lot of unknowns especially with respect to children. First of all i agree. It does not seem like six months, it seems like three years have gone by. It is amazing how much has happened since then. We still do not know all of the answers. The end is not in sight. We do not know what is going to happen next. Given all the weight of all the decisions weve had to make, this is one of the most difficult. How do we get our kids back to School Safely . We all want our kids back learning again. We cant go forever without kids having a socialization of being together in the classroom. Its difficult three distance learning. But, we also have to keep them safe. I dont think there is a one size fits all and we will have to watch the numbers very carefully. Our state superintendent of schools is looking we had a great discussion with robert red field at the cdc. We had a good discussion with the Vice President on the Coronavirus Task force. We are taking all of that advice. Our state student superintendent is getting input from all different jurisdictions. Some are better at Long Distance learning and some are more rural and have issues with a Long Distance learning. I want to get kids back in the classroom though. We want to do it safely, we do not want kids spreading this infection, so that is an issue we will be trying to grapple with through the next few weeks. Weve asked our local School Systems to also submit proposed plans. We will give them some flexibility but the state will set some guidelines i dont think people fully appreciate how diverse maryland is. I used to live in maryland for many years and its a very diverse state and a very diverse economy. You seem to have made a very deliberate decision to try and give a lot of control and decisionmaking down to local authorities in the state to try and tailor the need based on local needs, local resources and customs. Its what the federal government was recommending. They are talking about county by county instead of state by state. In our state, all of our local governments requested authority and flexibility. We have some very large jurisdictions. We have a couple of them close to 1 Million People in population. Some are very almost urban or populated and suburban. Some are very rural and small counties. They have different needs and theres no one size fits all. We sit a floor of standards. If a local jurisdiction had high positivity like we had in Prince George is county outside of washington, it was almost 30 positivity, they could go slower if they want to have more instructions. We now have come down to 6 . Its higher than the rest of the state but it is way down from their peak 90 days ago. How do you think that plays into schools . Im working with the governor in my home state. inaudible sorry we lost you by the way. laughs we thought about reopening schools. A lot of governors havent thought about how they will close schools again potentially. Im not saying youve made decisions about doing that but , what do you think some of the criteria would be in doing that . We havent thought of that, but again you have to plan for the worstcase scenario. I would love to get your input and maybe talk about this afterwards. When we reach certain points, if you have an outbreak or infection in a school, if it reaches a certain level, if we get Positivity Rates in that area that are over a certain level, you must have some breaks and say we have to catch this before it spreads. If you are going to open schools, you have to have a breaking mechanism to stop the spread and keep kids safe. Im sure you will come up with some good suggestions for us. I think it is going to be a challenging situation heading into the fall because we are likely to see outbreaks in the schools. We do not fully understand this virus in the setting of kids. We also do not understand what it is going to look like when it spreads with flu and people start to get cohen factored. So, i think its very important to get kids back into the classroom. Even for a brief period of time, get them back and socialized, it will be important. And also impacts the economy because we have parents that must stay home with the kids and cannot get back into the workplace. There are so many different factors to look at. We have some questions coming in from twitter. I want to get that pretty soon. You tweeted recently about your fiveyear anniversary from finishing chemotherapy. I remember that. You remember those anniversaries right . You never forget that last visit. Its poignant because when you are five years out as you know, there is a presumption that youve sort of beating the cancer and it will not come back. Let me interrupt and say that i postponed my pet scan because it was in the middle of the pandemic. I was supposed to get it april 1st and waited several months because of the overloaded hospitals. So you were really past the point. Very interesting, i did not know that detail. Thank you for sharing that. You had cancer obviously later in life. You read a moment in your career being a private businessman and going. I had only been governor for five months. Exactly. Do you think it shaped the way you think about Public Service and a different way . Did it put you on a different sort of pap . Im sure it impacted you that way scott after going through it, but it made me realize the things that are important in life. I got the chance to meet so many other fellow Cancer Patients that were going through much tougher battles and then my own as well as their families and what they went through. It did change me. Im much more empathetic and i have a new calling in life, regardless of if im governor or not. I will stay involved in helping raise money and awareness until we find a cure for some of these terrible diseases. Some questions from twitter if i may. They will not be as good as yours. They will probably be better than mine. Crowd sourcing is always better than what i can come up with. So people can be better prepared in the fall, but what point do you think maryland might consider rolling back some of the reopening . Have you thought about that . Our goal would be to try and keep businesses open unless its absolutely necessary. Since we have been aggressive unmasking and distancing and putting restrictions in capacity in places and since our state has been following the rules. Weve been doing massive amounts of testing now. So, our number of cases are ratcheting about our positivity is actually not our hospitals are good, our icus are good. We watched these numbers on a deadly daily basis and they are trending in the right direction unlike most other states. But, as soon as we start to see numbers that do not look good, its going to cause us to take whatever actions are necessary. We saw some concerning and alarming numbers with young people under 35. We put some guidance out to try and crack down on what we think some of those activities are. If we feel like we have to do something, i will not hesitate. My goal is to keep the economy safely open because the economic crisis is nearly as bad or just as bad as the Health Crisis. Right. You were showing me the rising Positivity Rate among young people relative to the general population. Have you seen any impact from the actions or is it still too early . Still too early. We never fully opened bars the way a number of other states did. We only had seeded, distanced and capacity restricted. Still, many young people are grabbing to these bars. Many are not following the rules. Many are going to parties. For people over 35, we are at three point something percent. Its almost dwight twice that for younger people. It is still much lower than it was. We picked a 26 90 days ago, but it is still concerning that theres a bit of a gap. Have you looked at the data and the number of the people coming in from hotspots . I know new york and a big slope from florida. Weve seen that and there are some surrounding states that are higher than us. Weve seen some activity at the beaches. We are seeing people come up from some of these Southern States. It was happening from new york in new jersey when they were hot, now we are seeing Southern States come up. But, you cannot close your borders. We are keeping an eye though. We have travel advisories. If they do, they should get tested and watch their symptoms and try to self quarantine. Obviously, you cannot put limitations for people traveling from other states. Is that more difficult to do in maryland . I think its much more difficult for anybody to enforce. Its not as big of an issue for us yet, but we are keeping an eye on that and certainly putting out advisories and warnings and trying to message people to be cautious. Another question from twitter. What are you thinking about with respect to how voting is going to unfold in the fall given the extenuating circumstances . During the height of the pandemic we were supposed to have a primary right at the peak. I signed an executive order postponing the primary and moving it a few months later to june. We allowed for vote by mail and only a few precincts opened up. They screwed up the vote by mail, Spanish Speaking ballots went to english speakers, they got the wrong districts, it was a disaster. A bunch of people showed up at the handful of precincts and had for our waits. So this time, weve had all the above. We will mail out applications for mailin ballots to everybody. We will have early voting for everybody and we will open polls in case someone comes out to vote. But, we will encourage doing the absentee ballots which we have been doing for 20 years. We will also encourage early voting. We do not want to have crowded polling places. We will watch it and have ppe and try to keep everybody safe. You cant do one or the other. We will try to do one all of the above. Ive been wanting to ask this question for a long time. You talk a lot about the story of securing those tests from south korea with the help of your wife. What kind of steps do you have to go through in terms of getting regulatory sign off and working with some federal officials to be able to bring in those tests and use them . How did you do it . It was somewhat of a nightmare. You know earlier on, and i talk about this in the book, early on there was not enough testing. I think in early march there was 2800 tests done in the whole country. At the end of march, there was very little Testing Available in most of the states. That is when we started reaching out. I think the president said at one point that the states are on their own. States were scrambling around. There was not enough available testing. We spent 22 days negotiating with eight of our state agencies and a company in south korea. We acquire these tests. Fda had been given flexibility to the states to be able to use things that were not through the normal process. We kept it pretty under wraps because there were some issues with the federal government having confiscated certain supplies coming into states. We did not want that to happen so we had to work through the channels. So, we kept it kind of low profile. The end of the story is it is a centerpiece of our longterm testing strategy. We built a stateoftheart lab with robotics. We use tens of thousands of these tests on our hottest spots. We are using two or 3000 a day in our state lab at our state university. We have a supply to take us all the way through till the end of november. We may have to use them up faster than we anticipate the. When we go in we are doing nursing homes, we had an outbreak in our poultry industry, when we really need to get the test results, those are the ones were sending out. We also have 230 other Testing Centers that are going through the normal process. It is a part of our long term testing strategy. So, the tests that go through those labs is mostly Public Health surveillance. Hours are 24 to 48 hours. Right now, everyone else is slowing down to ten days and in some cases longer. Are you still surprised are you surprised we are still facing these issues when it comes to testing . I am. With the spikes in other states, they are overloading the lab capacity. These National Labs that were doing a great job, just in the past several weeks since the spikes came out, they have come to a halt because they have too many tests coming in from around the country. It has caused us to have to ramp up our own internal testing. We thought we had a four month supply and we will probably use them up into and probably order some more. I will have to go get another planeload. You know, it seems like whats happening, and you may have more insight about this, at the commercial labs are the only swing capacity we have in this country. Thats exactly whats happening. They are even slow on those hotspots. I think thats a place where the federal government could possibly help. They did a good job on ramping up with the defense production act on ventilators. They really produced them. We had none and they produce them rapidly. If they help these labs boost of capacity they could help people get more tests and done faster. We dont have to do these crazy things like these outside of the box things. Also, its helping these businesses grow and utilizing the private sector which is something i think the administration has been pretty good at. Yeah. Its a question whether the private labs are making the Capital Investments they need to dramatically increase their capacity. I think thats whats the problem. My perception is that part of the bottleneck is hiring. We had the same problem in our state lab. We had the sophisticated machines. We had this huge stockpile a very sensitive and rapid testing. We had a flow and demand. It was hiring the people that had the skills. How was . If it was difficult. There are so many parts of it. Finding the swabs, the transport mediums, the tubes, the reagents, all these different parts and the people and talent. That is a hard part everywhere. We have a shortage of the people with the right qualifications. So there is a lot of qualifications about school. Clearly that , its on peoples minds. Everyone is concerned about. It getting kids back into the classroom, but also if the decision has to be made to close schools this fall, do you envision that being a state led decision . Do you envision at first there may be local districts making the decision before making a state decision . Thats a good question. We havent come out with our final plan yet. Our state board of education which is autonomous from the governor, they put out a plan a month ago and will come out with some more guidance this week. They will set some parameters and give flexibility. The local boards of education have Real Authority and autonomy, as to our county governments, to make certain decisions on their own. But, they will do it within certain parameters. I think we will allow if someone has a critical situation, the local school board will have the ability to put those brakes and the chain and say we have an emergency situation. They should not have to wait to run it up the chain. They should be able to put the brakes on. What are these sort of things that schools are doing here in maryland to try to prevent outbreaks and create a safe environment . They have until august 14th to put the 24 jurisdictions to submit their plans. A lot of the larger jurisdictions are leaning more towards online learning. I think many of our more rural districts want to get kids back into classrooms more. I think many of them will be looking at a hybrid or staggered curriculums where kids come in a few days. Weve not seen all the recommendations and weve not seen the final decisions for the state. You think an important concept is to reduce the density in schools . You cant have kids jammed into those small areas. How do you spread them out . Maybe you have to do some staggering. Maybe they come in for two or three days and then go back and do some distanced learning. Get them back and socialize in the classroom, but maybe theyre not their every single day. Im not sure yet. There are smarter people than me that our education experts and Health Experts that will be making these decisions. Obviously, school is approaching. Yes. The final plans are supposed to be for august 14th but we will have some guidance this week. Certain states cant reduce tends to be. Its obviously easier in some districts than others depending on infrastructure. If you see what the european nations did, they had pods. The same ten kids Stay Together throughout the whole day. That certainly works in some areas and i think certain boards are looking at that. Do you see masks being worn in Public Schools . I think you have to. I dont see how you get around it. What is the appearance in this state look like when it comes to masks . I dont know why it has come such become such a political issue. Im glad to see the president not wearing a mask. He says its patriotic to wear a mask yesterday. I know most of his administration has been saying masking is important. I know you are a big proponent of that. We had our masks on and just took them off for the interview. Most of the people in my state or following it and i think that is one of the reasons our numbers are going down as opposed to certain places where they refuse to wear masks. It seems to me its one of the things we can do collectively to prevent a resurgence. We started up 98 of our economy. Our numbers are going down. I keep saying we want to keep marilyn open up for business. The simplest thing you can do is wear a mask. If you dont wear a mask, there is a chance the economy could shut down again and people could lose their jobs and people could be getting sick. It does not make any sense. Have you looked at the data for mask adherence in your state . I dont know if we have the exact numbers but , but you can walk around anecdotally and see most people Wearing Masks. Im a republican governor, but the attitude may be a little different than in some Southern States. A bunch of these 20 something or 30 something people are Wearing Masks because they are probably at parties and boris. And executing your plan, you sought guidance from a wide variety of agencies. You brought in Business Leaders like the ceo of under armor which is also a headquartered here in maryland. What perspectives were you hoping to capture . What do you think that contributed . It was huge. First of all, thank you again for serving. We had a coronavirus Recovery Response Team that was made up of folks like the former fda commissioner, doctor scott gottlieb. We had some of the top doctors from Johns Hopkins. We have great medical facilities in the state of maryland. We are the headquarters of the fda, and i h. , we have Johns Hopkins, we have the university of maryland and all these great folks. We put all of the smart doctors on the team and also brought in top business led years. We wanted both perspectives to get the economy back safely. We had the chairman of marriott and the chairman of under armor and a number of other leaders. We had these great discussions on a weekly basis and getting input on the health side and the business side. Every one of the decisions that i make, i can tell you, it was based on input that i got from people much smarter than me. We had to make decisions pretty quickly. There is no time to debate or to wait around or pass legislation. We had to make decisions quickly and i wanted the best and smartest people around me to get the best advice so i could make those decisions. It was very helpful to the entire response to the pandemic. How do you feel heading into the fall . In some respects, we know more, weve had time to prepare, but in other respects, if we do have to shut down again, we are doing it on the heel of a weekend economy. We have been through a lot. I am very concerned. On the one hand, we are much better prepared. We were shocked and we were hit, we had nothing when we started this. We had to build an entire infrastructure. The state of maryland had never acquired swabs and masks and ppe. Now weve built lap capacity, weve built 6000 were hospital beds, we have plenty of ventilators, weve added Surge Capacity and build field hospitals. We are prepared in that respect if something flares up. We also have our economy back on track and we are doing better than most of the states in the country. It almost 30 better than the rest of the country. I am still concerned that that could change in a moment if this thing gets back to the way it was. It looks like it is a possibility, so im worried about the fall, but i think we are better prepared. Im very concerned about another shutdown and another flareup. You feel like the state has been able to stockpile a lot of the equipment we didnt have . I will not say we wont have shortages again because other people are having it around the country. But, i dont think we will be as caught off guard is everyone was the first time around. A statistic from a new york city hospital, that their pandemic plans we, theyve been using two times the amount of ppe and were burning through it. Unbelievable. A lot of the plants we had on the shelf, we underestimated the true impact. Nobody really was prepared for anything like this. The private sector or the public sector. Now weve learned a lot. Whether we will be prepared for the next time or not, we had least no more than we did the first time. Right. So you are heading the National Governors association. You think states will behave differently Going Forward in terms of making their own preparations . I sure hope so. I think the federal government needs to be more prepared next time. I think the states need to be prepared better next time. I think the hospital systems, almost Everybody Needs to learn from this experience because we cannot be cut like this again. Twitter question from shelley whos the head of the National Coalition for cancer survivors. She says, first of all thank you for you allergic leadership. She wanted me to ask you about the recent uptick in cases. We talked about that a little bit and how concerned you are and what youre trying to do to combat that. In our state, i think yesterday or the day before, we did almost 29,000 tests. Our cases went up, but they actually went up at a slower rate. When you move from 15,000 tests to 30, 000, your numbers should double. They didnt. They went up at a slower rate. We are concerned that there are more cases, but when the Positivity Rate and percentage is going down, its still a pretty good sign. I will not say we are not concerned about rising cases and dismissing it, but there are other metrics that we look at. The Positivity Rate, hospitalizations, icus and deaths. We are cautiously watching those numbers. You see testing continuing to build going into the fall in the state . Its growing at a rapid pace. I think we will need to ramp up our own testing because of the slowdowns. I think we will be back to this testing problem again because weve not addressed the issues. Thats not reassuring. Right now, youre able to get testing into the places where you feel. inaudible weve opened 130 Testing Centers across the state. We went from almost zero testing to almost 20 or 30,000 a day. But, we are very concerned about the slow labs which is probably why we will have to do more ourselves with our korean tests. He is their inability to create more capacity with those . Ramping up and hiring more people and probably going to use these up at a faster rate. We will probably have to find some more. Youve been able to find the labor right now . We have done, it has been tough, but weve doubled the staff in the past week or two. Were running out on time so i want to give you a few minutes to close this out here in terms of what you think some of what the most important Lessons Learned are . What kinds of things are you telling governors and states that havent been hit yet . This is a state that has been hit along with the whole northeast and youve been able to bring down the levels of the virus. What are you telling other governors in terms of what they can do, the ones that have not yet been affected by this . First of all, let me say that ive been proud to be able to share this group of governors. Governors on both sides of the aisle have really stepped up on the front lines of battling this crisis. I think they all, in different ways, try to do a great job to protect their citizens and keep their economy safe. It has been a challenge. I think i have led 40 something calls with all of the nations governors. Thats a lot. Probably more than theyve done in ten years. We have also had many individual discussions back and forth about how we are are dealing with this or have you seen this issue . Oneonone questions with groups of governors in regions cooperating. So, far be it from me to say heres how weve done it let me give you advice. We share best practices and input from one another. We give each other advice on almost a daily basis. The collaboration has been terrific. With all the divisive politics you see today, sometimes things dont seem to get that in congress with democrats and republicans. Governors have been able to work in a bipartisan way through this pandemic and he has been amazing. Ive been able to share some things with my colleagues. I think early and aggressive action and not waiting is important. We get the best input from the experts, make the quick decisions, dont hesitate and dont worry about the politics. People will be mad. People on both sides will not like whatever decision you make. I dont care about the politics. Im just trying to make the best decisions for the people of my state. I think most governors, that is what they are doing and what they should do. Federal government has decided to leave a lot of decisionmaking to states and weve not seen a National Approach to this. At times we have, but in most respects, the white house sort of plans or encapsulating what was already underway in the states and private sector. Do you see more collaboration among governors to create a sort of Regional Response as a consequence . Will this be a new federalism if you will . Thats interesting. It is possible. I think that to a certain extent, the governors are on the front lines, and it was okay for us to have the flexibility to make decisions. But there were certain issues where the federal government could have played a bigger role like testing. Like testing. We would not have 50 states competing with one another and the federal government in a constraint market for things we desperately need all over the globe. But, having some flexibility is good. Im all for states rights and states having more power and states being able to do things on their own. I think there has been way more cooperation with regional compacts and states then youve ever seen before. I think the governors have also stepped up and been more visible and played more of a role. People are like, hey, these guys are getting things done. You see a lot of what the senators and congressman are talking about in washington, but now people are saying these governors are doing things in their states. Governor, i want to thank you for your time. Thank you for your leadership. We cant shake hands, but thank you very much. An air bump. A very much enjoyed it, i appreciated having us on today. Thanks a lot. Thanks for being here. Thank you
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