What is happening in New Mexico should terrify all Americans. This is unchecked tyrannical power. Governor Grisham may surpass even Gov Cuomo of NY as the worst governor in history. This might be your state soon.
My husband and I ate at a Denny's on Nov 13 in NM. When the server brought our check, we chatted for a few minutes. We told him how happy we were to actually be able to sit down and eat. He told us we were just in time, because they were getting locked down again soon.
We asked him about other businesses, and he said the grocery stores, WalMart, etc were open, but that they had to wait in lines due to occupancy restrictions AND they were only allowed to fill a *basket.* Not a cart, mind you -- only a *basket.*
As I drove across NM that day, 7 electronic billboards on I-40 said the same thing:
"Record Cases
Full Hospitals
Covid Kills"
"Get Serious
Covid Is On
The Rise In NM"
I pulled the data from 11-13 and it was:
70% inpatient bed occupancy, 21% Covid - and -
88% ICU bed occupancy, 44% Covid
So they lied about full hospitals. Common tactic these days.
On this day, 11/13, in a public health order, Gov Grisham ordered that "essential" businesses be closed IF 4 or more employees tested positive with an Antigen test, aka, Rapid Response test.
Antigen tests are NOT foolproof....
Gov Grisham doesn't care. The result is the closing of (so far) 25 "essential" businesses in New Mexico as of 11/29. (Source: NM Rapid Response Data )
Not only does she not care, she lies. Statement from her office:
"People being forced to stand in long lines outside of “essential businesses” such as Walmart, Albertsons, Costco, and other locations due to her public health orders restricting grocery stores are just “Republican talking points” that are “politically motivated.”
MANY New Mexico citizens STRONGLY disagree as they wait in long lines!
So the people of NM are standing outside, in the cold, for potentially hours, just to get into a grocery/big box store to fill up a basket.
When it comes to death in NM:
Population: 2,096,640 in 2020
Deaths (as of 11/29): 1527
% of Population of NM who have died from Covid: .000728308
The following week (on 11/18) I drove across I-40 again. The billboards had changed to:
"2 Week Reset
Stay At Home
Stop The Virus
Record Cases
Full Hospitals
Covid Kills"
So I pulled the data for 11/18:
75% inpatient bed occupancy, 24% Covid - and -
95% ICU bed occupancy, 49% Covid
That data does indeed seem alarming, but there are strange spikes. Also note that the overall ICU utilization/Covid went down on 11/18.
On 11/27, the billboards had changed to:
"Virus Risk
Has Never
Been Higher
Stay At home
Protect NM
Save Lives"
They'd gotten rid of the full hospital claim. (Source: healthdata.gov)
What you are looking at here is the ultimate trainwreck. You have people in a poor state, (49th by median household income) getting their stores shut down. Waiting in lines. Their governor laughs at their complaints about those lines and denies they exist.
