Opinion: We Need Another Lockdown. But This Time We Need to Do It Right

By Adam Cunningham

The author is a Germantown resident, activist and Democratic applicant for the District 39 state Senate seat in Montgomery County.

When the pandemic first hit Maryland in 2020, it sent us all into a tailspin from which we have nevertheless to recuperate. In the wake of growing instances and fatalities, a statewide lockdown was declared, however owing to the absence of data we experienced at the time thanks to its distribute, right after Gov. Larry Hogan’s state of unexpected emergency declaration, the extent of the lockdown was piecemeal and took much too very long to thoroughly put into practice. As these kinds of, hundreds of countless numbers, if not hundreds of thousands of men and women were being remaining scrambling to keep protected even though also generating certain their livelihoods had been retained intact and they could preserve a roof above their heads.

All in all, Maryland’s reaction to the pandemic, like most other states and nations, was haphazard, lackluster, and ended up hurting a whole lot of folks in the long run. Just about two yrs into this pandemic, and with the omicron variant raging by our populace, it is time for much more drastic action to occur from Maryland’s government, especially provided how the Biden administration does not seem to have a prepare to deal with the ongoing outbreak, working with the classes we’ve figured out so significantly from the pandemic.

In truth, the way we went about the lockdown and subsequent steps was awful. In the thirty day period next the 1st 105 instances of coronavirus in this point out, we graduated from confined team occasions and closing public spots to a entirely-fledged keep-at-property order and partial lockdown. During that initial period of time, we observed quite a few items take place: for a person, the coronavirus conditions began to peak and our hospitals have been not overrun with influenced individuals, not like other states that determined in opposition to lockdowns, or even mask mandates.

However, this was not a perfect situation. Even prior to the pandemic, there were big challenges with Maryland’s social safety web that left a lot of people today devoid of the resources they required and were being entitled to acquiring compensated into the procedure. Activists for yrs up to that point had been pressuring the Typical Assembly and governor’s workplace to deal with these, but to no avail.

As these types of, when tens of millions of people abruptly were furloughed and not able to operate thanks to the remain-residence order and experienced to implement for unemployment gains, among the other matters, the procedure could not compensate and persons have been remaining without having the usually means to afford to pay for dwelling bills, an concern that has an effect on people to this working day.

Speaking individually, I had a modest personal computer fix organization that was totally ruined by the pandemic due to my being unable to satisfy with consumers simply because of the keep-residence buy. Following the purchase was lifted, my clientele shriveled up and I had no option but to implement for unemployment benefits to keep our family members from turning into homeless, but then Governor Hogan began attacking vulnerable Marylanders by striving to conclude federal unemployment rewards and reinstituting get the job done necessities to obtain any resources, producing me and hundreds of thousands of others to be unjustly kicked off the method.

However, the destructive encounters I’ve had with our system are frequent amongst Marylanders. These issues could have been resolved in the span of a one legislative session as nicely, but our sitting legislators and leaders skipped the mark.

The omicron variant has presented them a prospect to do the appropriate point this time all around. As we communicate, the confirmed circumstances of the omicron variant have attained degrees unheard of in Maryland due to the fact the start off of the pandemic. It has gotten to the stage exactly where our hospitals are practically overrun with COVID sufferers, and the circumstances are ever-rising thanks to the lack of coherent messaging and scheduling to deal with this pandemic. The time has come for the Normal Assembly to just take the guide and do what wants to be carried out to fight in opposition to the pandemic.

But what would that glance like? Properly, to start off, they could mandate or pressure Hogan to declare a further continue to be-household get. There was precedent for it at the begin of the pandemic when we only experienced at least 105 verified circumstances in the state, so we undoubtedly have precedent for shutting down in the facial area of far more than 15,000 circumstances nowadays.

There have also been experiments expressing that lockdown actions can be effective if carried out the right way, but it can’t end there. Lockdowns aren’t without their pitfalls, equally socially and economically, and it would be up to our leaders in the condition legislature to enact insurance policies that make absolutely sure that every person is adequately secured during this time. That signifies doling out more stimulus checks, a measure proposed by Peter Franchot, a rather moderate-to-conservative Democrat and existing comptroller of Maryland who is jogging for governor.

That indicates applying the state’s finances surplus to ship at-property check kits to each individual accessible address, and rapidly ramp up COVID testing and vaccination efforts. It implies overhauling our unemployment insurance policies and welfare gains units to make positive that every man or woman who will inevitably need fiscal aid will get it in a well timed method. It means guarding unhoused people today by ensuring they have a location to go during the lockdown – especially for the duration of these severe wintertime months – that is not a jail mobile since they committed the crime of not owning a home for the duration of a continue to be-residence purchase.

It also indicates obtaining Maryland’s Board of Training to set up a coherent and extensive virtual studying curriculum to meet up with the needs of learners who will be intensely impacted by the lockdown. That usually means instituting a fair and just statewide eviction moratorium and effectively funding eviction lawyers for susceptible tenants and family members. That means implementing all the items that activists, organizers and leaders have been demanding of the Standard Assembly due to the fact the pandemic begun, but they’ve largely disregarded or refused to do.

And if any individual is unwilling to satisfy the moment we’re in with the power and conviction required to get factors done, then they want to be voted out this 12 months. It is as very simple as that.