I remember living in Maine when then-Gov. Paul LePage attempted to quarantine a perfectly healthy nurse who had returned from Sierra Leone, where she had been treating Ebola patients.

LePage’s heavy-handed, pompous and tone-deaf approach to handling a health crisis proved to be both ignorant and unconstitutional. Now in the process of moving back to Maine, we had hoped a new governor would have had more sense to strengthen our medical infrastructure and bring COVID-19 testing into the state.

Sadly, it looks as though Janet Mills has joined the long line of governors who have failed to lead Maine, and instead clung to what should have been a temporary and last resort as the only tool in her shed.

We believe staying at home is the right thing to do, and have quarantined for eight weeks thus far, but like many, absolutely have the expectation of our leaders to have used this time to mount an effective response to this pandemic by bringing widespread testing and contact tracing into states, and fortifying our health systems.

Gov. Mills has failed to demonstrate any signs of adequate leadership during this crisis. Mainers have tolerated Mills’ assuming she can order them home because they agreed with it – not because she had any authority to do so. We’ve done, and will continue to do, our job in responsibly staying home. When is Gov. Mills going to do her job, and get Maine the infrastructure it needs to reopen?

Jonathan Zdziarski
Lamoine


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