Months going into the COVID-19 Pandemic the trajectory of all the data has been going in the wrong direction.
Maricopa County alone accounts for almost half of the reported cases and except for the City of Phoenix and Tempe, the other cities are controlled by conservative GOP mayors. . .
But there's always more to what's between-the-lines
"And now, Arizona is facing more per capita cases than recorded by any country in Europe or even more than the confirmed number of cases in hard-hit Brazil - no state has seen its rate of hospitalizations increase more rapidly since Memorial Day.
At virtually every stage of the state’s pandemic response, the interests of business have held sway, said Nathan Laufer, the founder of the Heart and Vascular Center of Arizona, a medical practice with locations in Phoenix and nearby counties, and a former director of the state medical association.
Ducey is a former chief executive of Cold Stone Creamery. The head of the state’s restaurant association, Steve Chucri, is also a Republican supervisor in Maricopa County. He did not respond to requests for comment.
“It’s fine to be pro-business, but you have to be pro-citizen first,” Laufer said. The governor, in belatedly handing local authorities more control, is “playing catch-up,” he added, “but it’s too little, too late.”
Nothing for visual impact says more than this image taken from an article published on. June 25th in The Washington Post:
EXTRACT:
". . . Some residents noted that the Republican governor was following his party’s standard-bearer. “Hindsight’s 20/20, but yeah, it was a little late,” said Greg Cahill, loading his car with groceries outside a Costco at Phoenix’s Christown Spectrum mall.
“I think he was a little slow. But he’s a conservative man and he wanted to do what Trump said.”
“It’s scary,” the 58-year-old said of the rising cases. . ."
How Arizona ‘lost control of the epidemic’
Let's spotlight the three reporters first - one is Jeremy Duda
Jeremy Duda
Isaac Stanley-Becker is a national political reporter.
Chelsea Janes is covering the 2020 presidential campaign.
She was The Washington Post's beat writer for the Washington Nationals from 2014 to 2018 and was a sports intern for The Post in 2013.
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PLEASE NOTE: Jacqueline Dupree contributed to this report.
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"Ducey’s original order reopening the state — and preventing local officials from setting their own rules despite mounting evidence about the benefits of masks and social distancing — was in keeping with a top-down approach to governance that critics say has characterized his tenure. In 2017, he signed a bill approved by the Republican-controlled legislature that allowed any state legislator to direct the Arizona attorney general to investigate a local regulation for a possible violation of state law. Consequences included potentially losing revenue from the state.
“The biggest challenge has been Governor Ducey tying the hands of mayors and county health departments,” said Regina Romero, the Democratic mayor of Tucson, who said she weighed an emergency proclamation mandating masks in mid-March but was advised against it by her city attorney. Her city’s budget is about $566 million, Romero said, more than a fifth of which comes from the state.
“There’s a real threat with money involved,” the mayor said. . . _________________________________________________________________
