South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) is one of the few governors that decided not to issue a stay-at-home order during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. Her decision was based on the fact that her state had very few cases and she did not want to trample on South Dakotans' civil liberties.
Critics are now citing an outbreak at the Sioux Falls Smithfield Foods, which had 438 employees test positive for the virus, as a reason to issue a lockdown. Another 107 people who came into contact with the processing plant also tested positive. As of now, the state has 1,311 cases of the Wuhan coronavirus and seven deaths.
Despite that, Noem believes a statewide stay-at-home order is not the answer.
"We have one issue at a pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, but outside of that, two-thirds of our state has no cases or one case in an entire county," Noem explained to Fox News' Laura Ingraham. "We're doing really well as a state and addressing the one hot spot that we do have and aggressively testing in that area."
According to the governor, it is important to look at the number of infections and hospital rates when making lockdown decisions. Because South Dakota has had such few cases, businesses have been able to stay open and people can continue to work, something many starts are now grappling with.
The Democrat Media Complex continually hammers Noem for not issuing a stay-at-home order, but she pointed out one thing these media folks conveniently leave out: even if she made people shelter in place, that would not have stopped the outbreak at the Smithfield Foods plant.
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"What they're neglecting to tell folks is this processing plant is critical infrastructure. Regardless of a shelter-in-place order or not, it would have been up and running because it's an important part of our nation's food supply," Noem said. "That's what's been happening on the national level. They've been not telling all the facts behind this."
Eight governors, including Noem, decided not to issue a stay-at-home order and, because of that, they have been targeted by the leftist mainstream media. But one of the biggest issues during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic has been trying to find a balance of protecting civil liberties while protecting peoples' health.
“I had a real honest conversation with the people in our state. I told them I took an oath to uphold the Constitution of our state, of South Dakota," she said. "I took an oath when I was in Congress, obviously, to uphold the Constitution of the United States. I believe in our freedoms and liberties. What I’ve seen across the country is so many people give up their liberties for just a little bit of security and they don’t have to do that."
“If a leader will take too much power in a time of crisis, that is how we lose our country,” the governor explained. “So, I felt like I’ve had to use every single opportunity to talk about why we slow things down, we make decisions based on science and facts, and make sure that we are not letting emotion grab ahold of the situation.”
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