Chief Medical Exec Admits Governor Whitmer Not Following Science
Claims “Many Other Things” Influence Whitmer Policy, but Refuses to Elaborate
LANSING, Mich. – Following remarks from Governor Whitmer’s Chief Medical Executive, Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, the Michigan Freedom Fund today demanded that the Whitmer Administration come clean on the politics that have guided her policies and orders and re-upped their call from Monday for no new mandates.
“For more than a year, Governor Whitmer has been focused on political science, polling data, and making rules that she refuses to follow. No new mandates should be imposed because they are not backed by anything other than politics, which has been Whitmer’s focus this entire time,” said Tori Sachs, executive director of the Michigan Freedom Fund. “We know that Governor Whitmer fired the previous health director over a policy disagreement – and then she covered it up with a taxpayer-funded hush money severance package. Now comes the admission from chief medical executive Dr. Khaldun that ‘many other things’ influenced Whitmer’s decisions, but the state’s top doctor refused to elaborate on what those things are. Now the public is hearing from another individual in the room where it happens that other factors like politics play into the administration’s restrictions.”
Background
Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s chief medical executive, Dr. Joneigh Khaldun told reporters today “that if a mask mandate were in place and followed it would decrease the spread of COVID-19 in schools” but that she had to stay in her lane and there are “many other things” to be considered in regards to public health orders.
Michigan’s State Epidemiologist was also asked if she recommended Whitmer order a mask mandate in schools when a communications staffer intervened saying that was not “in her purview” to respond to.
Detroit News reporter Craig Mauger tweeted that Whitmer’s administration has said for a year that they were “following the science,” an apparent change in strategy now publicly stated by the state’s top doctor.
But while Whitmer claimed her previous rules were backed by science, she rarely disclosed the reasoning and data publicly. Whitmer and her top health official did not follow their own guidelines discouraging travel to Florida earlier this spring.
Whitmer’s health director, Elizabeth Hertel, whom Dr. Khaldun reports to, took over that position when the previous director of Health and Human Services Robert Gordon resigned after a policy disagreement with Whitmer and was given a $155,000 taxpayer-funded hush money payment to remain quiet.
The Michigan Freedom Fund works to advance conservative ideas, hold our government accountable to taxpayers, and protect Freedom, opportunity, and workers’ Constitutional rights. For more information, please visit MichiganFreedomFund.com.
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