Some officials said that the state could be faster in giving basic directives and that, like Mr. Hogan, they wished they could get more protective gear. “There are not enough supplies
Maryland has received far fewer N95 masks, respirators and gloves than it has requested from the federal government, according to documents released on Thursday by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. And it has received none of the 100,000 swabs it requested for coronavirus test kits.
Mr. Hogan said his decisions were informed principally by health care professionals, many of them culled from the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, among other local health care providers.
“I’m not an expert on this, but I’m going to listen to the smartest guys in the room,” he said, adding: “These guys say if we don’t act now, we’re going to have this surge, we’re not going to have ventilators, we’re going to overload the system. We’re not going to have enough health care workers, we’re going to look like New York, and there’s going to be bodies stacked up.”
Every day, there are dozens of decisions to be made over conference calls. Pay some state workers extra who have been called upon to report to work when most other Marylanders are being asked to remain home? Yes. How about for workers who check on child abuse reports? Also yes. Palm Sunday services permitted in church parking lots? Yes, but no passing of a collection plate. This debate went on for some time. “We don’t like government telling churches what to do,” Mr. Hogan said, “but we don’t want 2 million people to die.”
