(Moore, Journal)

Governor Lujan Grisham Wednesday became the first New Mexico Governor to invoke the 2003 Public Health Emergency Response Act (PHERA), issuing an executive order giving her administration broad powers to deal with the coronavirus which was has now been confirmed in four New Mexicans.

MLG news conference here. AP coverage here. Journal coverage here. New Mexican coverage here. Sun-News coverage here.

Her hour-long news conference announcing her action sometimes seemed surreal. After all, when do you hear a Governor say something like this:

You should think about not going to church. You should think about not going to your community meeting. You should think about not going to a neighborhood association meeting.

Only one other time in state history--during the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic--has the state's chief executive uttered similar advice.

Sometimes the moment meets the man or woman. And in the case of New Mexico and coronavirus, this is one of those times. From 2004-2007 MLG served as the Secretary of the Department of Health, the agency that now assumes power in making decisions regarding coronavirus and public safety.

She also served as a longtime director of the New Mexico Agency on Aging (now the Aging and Long-Term Services Department). That experience is also timely because the coronavirus is most serious for individuals over 60, many of whom are in nursing facilities that in the past MLG oversaw.

Kathyleen Kunkel, Secretary of the Dept. of Health, is an attorney who has seven years in the department and more with the attorney general's office.

"She has the experience and knowledge to handle this," offered Cliff Rees, an attorney who has worked with her and who helped author the Public Health Emergency Response Act invoked by the Governor, along with two other acts to deal with the virus.

Dr. David Scrase, Secretary of the Human Services Department, is another key player in the state's management of the virus. Insiders called the 30 year physician one of MLG's best cabinet picks when she came into office in 2019. He previously served as Chief of Geriatrics at UNM, a timely background during this pandemic.

All that experience showed as the emergency powers were announced, with the state leaders fielding questions for an hour, including Dr. Chad Smelser, a DOH epidemiologist who kept it cool, calm and informative. Nothing was left unanswered. So far so good.

WASH YOUR HANDS!

Sen. Sharer

In this era nothing goes unpoliticized, and boy, did GOP State Senator Bill Sharer do his part as he unloaded on the Governor for invoking a public health emergency. "Wash your hands and ignore the panic," he declared, adding:

The Governor has called for mass panic, then told us not to panic. . . I encourage people to take common sense measures to prevent the spread of any disease. We all should take the same precautions as we do to avoid the flu. If we put this in perspective, many more people get sick and die from the seasonal flu in our state every year than have contracted COVID19 in the entire United States.

While we are concerned about the seasonal flu, we don’t declare states of emergency and cause panic over it. The governor’s emergency declaration is already having huge negative effects, The governor has touted tourism as the way to move away from the fossil fuel industry that currently funds the state budget. As of today’s emergency declaration, she is actively destroying that industry as well. . . The panic the governor induced in New Mexico has the potential to go on and on. Wash your hands and ignore the panic.

No question the emergency declaration will have an adverse impact on business and tourism, but the spread of the virus is what's causing the panic in crashing financial markets and the run on stores--it's not the action of the government. In fact, it has been what the markets see as governmental inaction in confronting the virus that is cited as a reason for deep concern, if not panic.

And the Governor's first major decision to halt a large public gathering --the annual Native American Gathering of Nations that draws thousands to the UNM Pit--set off a dispute between her and the director of the event who claimed he had not been advised of the postponement. The Governor's office strongly disagreed.