Holmes, Butterfield discuss state reopening

ZANESVILLE - As Ohio inches closer to reopening, the Muskingum County Joint Command Center invited State Rep Adam Holmes (R-Zanesville) to speak during the command's weekly Facebook Live address on Tuesday.

Holmes, who represents Ohio's 97th House District, which covers most of Muskingum and Guernsey counties, is a member of the state's Ohio 2020 Economic Recovery Task Force, a bipartisan group formed to "help assist and accelerate the economic recovery and return to work for the entire state in a pragmatic and efficient way," Holmes said.

Borrowing a term from his military career, Holmes said he applied "operational risk management" to his thinking toward reopening the state. "There are two ways we can go about living life; change the whole way we live and hunker down, or do what we are doing now, continuing to live our lives and return to normalcy as close as we can while implementing risk management procedures to prevent the transmission of the Corona virus."

Holmes said the task force is urging the return to work, instead of dividing businesses by whether they are considered non-essential or essential. "It is going to be more of a focus on who can implement effective risk management protocol at their business and those that can't." Businesses that are allowed to reopen, Holmes said, would not be related to industry or location. "It is going to be tailored. Certain businesses are going to have certain protocols to put in place so they can safely operate without spreading Corona virus.

"I think that is encouraging as Americans because it is empowering each individual, each business owner, each customer, each family, how do you want to exercise prevention." Holmes said. "There are great, very effective guidelines from state and local governments and the federal government, but not mandates, and it is certainly in everyone's interest, whether it is your family or friends or your business not to spread it, and that trust and inspiring that trust our citizenry is a hallmark of the United States."

Holmes said the task force would "push and encourage and support the governor when he thinks in those terms."

Muskingum County Health Department Medical Director Dr. Jack Butterfield said while the state is moving toward reopening, the virus has not gone away.

"Even if we are opening businesses, the virus is still out there. There will be more infections, there will be risk," Butterfield said. "We have to maintain all the things we have done that have kept our numbers low."

Butterfield urges people to continue to wear masks in public, practice social distancing and wash their hands frequently. "Wearing your mask important, social distancing is important, please don't forget these principals as we move into a new phase of the virus."

"We need a careful, measured, staggered approach to reopening business, if we suddenly flip the switch, we would find ourselves with a huge spike, of corona disease and death." Butterfield said.

Answering questions from the public at the end of the live forum, Butterfield noted that while a vaccine is being developed, the fasted vaccine brought to mark, for mumps, took four years to develop. 

As for the COVID-19's similarities to the flu, Butterfield pointed out the Center for Disease Control estimates that in the United States, 40,000 people died of influenza during the most recent flu season, from October first to the end of March. By contrast, 40,000 people have died in seven weeks of the COVID-19 virus.