(Tucson, AZ) – Today, Rep. Kirkpatrick released the following statement regarding the Vice President’s visit to Arizona during another week of surging COVID-19 cases throughout the state.
The number of infections in Arizona surpassed 79,000 on Tuesday, and the state reported 1,632 deaths. Arizona’s hospitals and health care workers are overrun, which prompted the governor to again shut down gyms, bars, movie theaters, water parks, and other establishments in an effort to slow the spread. Originally, Pence’s trip included a large campaign event, which has now been postponed.
“This Administration and our state’s leadership did not listen to the experts at the very beginning and did not devise nor implement a virus prevention strategy to get the pandemic under control,” said Rep. Kirkpatrick. “Now, Arizona is surging in cases — hospitals are reaching capacity, gyms are ignoring Executive Orders and people are fighting over mask mandates. We are in desperate need of strong leadership that outlines an aggressive plan to slow the spread. We need federal policy that reflects this, a statewide mask mandate, and more vigorous pre-emptive measures to stop the spread. We need more than just weekly campaign events masquerading as important roundtables from this Administration. We need Vice President Pence and Governor Ducey to put our health and science before partisan political messaging.”
Earlier this year, Governor Ducey requested that the federal government reopen the Affordable Care Act enrollment during the pandemic to help families get health insurance, but the request was denied.
“It baffles me that the Trump Administration is continuing its attacks on the health care law that protects millions of Americans. At all times, but especially during a public health crisis, people need more healthcare coverage, not less,” said Rep. Kirkpatrick. “I hope the Vice President and Governor use their platform today to speak, factually, to Arizonans about the severity of our state’s health crisis and importance of prevention.”