Whitmer Admits Her COVID Restrictions Didn’t ‘Make a Lot of Sense’

Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer (D.) admitted Sunday that her COVID-19 lockdown orders—some of the strictest in the country—were excessive and “in retrospect don’t make a lot of sense.”

Whitmer’s tight lockdown, which is one of the longest-lasting in any state, closed many schools and local businesses and declared items such as gardening seeds and hardware “not for sale”.Nonessential“But allowing the in-person sales of alcohol and lottery tickets as well curbside marijuana sales. Michiganders Faced penalties They could leave their homes to go for “nonessential” Activities like visiting family and friends.

“There were moments where we had to make some decisions that in retrospect don’t make a lot of sense, right? … We didn’t want people to be congregating around the garden supplies,” Whitmer said CNN March 12,

“People said ‘oh, she’s outlawed seeds.’ It was February in Michigan, no one was planting anyway,” She went on. “But that being said, some of those policies I look back and think maybe that was a little more than what we needed to do.”

Michigan suffered a series of losses due to the Democratic governor’s strict lockdowns. a million jobs By April 2021, over 3,000 restaurants had been closed. Extended remote learning 20% Michigan public schools to see an increase in third-graders falling a grade behind.

Whitmer’s executive orders for April 2020 took effect Many thousands Many Michiganders protested the state capitol, and many tried to recall the governor. Whitmer continued to defend her previous policies after the backlash.

“I understand the incredible hardship that people are going through. The worry about your job, the depression of isolation … the confusion of just trying to figure out why you can buy a lottery ticket and not seeds. I get it. It’s tough,” Whitmer stated this in April 2020. “But those days where we can resume some normalcy, they are on the horizon if we keep doing what we need to do to get past this moment.”