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Georgia gubernatorial candidates (L-R) Clash in First Debate

Source: Pool / Getty

People are completely fed up with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp after witnessing his handling of the coronavirus pandemic in Georgia. Stacey Abrams naturally came up in the conversation, considering she was extremely close to beating Kemp in the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial race. However, dirty politics and voter suppression prevented her from winning.

According to The Washington Post, Kemp spent days resisting a stay-at-home order that would prevent Georgia citizens from spreading the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). He finally succumbed to pressure on Wednesday when he mandated Georgia citizens to stay at home. Part of the reason he says he made the move is because he just learned that asymptomatic people could spread the virus.

He said he was “finding out that this virus is now transmitting before people see signs.”

“Those individuals could have been infecting people before they ever felt bad, but we didn’t know that until the last 24 hours,” he explained. He continued that the state’s top doctor communicated that “this is a game-changer.”

Have Mr. Kemp and his doctors not been watching the news?

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, a top member of the White House coronavirus task force, was explaining asymptomatic transmission more than two months ago.”We were not sure if there were asymptomatic infection, which would make it a much broader outbreak than what we’re seeing.  Now we know for sure that there are,” were his exact words on January 31. “It was not clear whether an asymptomatic person could transmit it to someone while they were asymptomatic.  Now we know from a recent report from Germany that that is absolutely the case.”

Even a couple celebrities revealed that they tested positive for the coronavirus without experiencing any symptoms, including Idris Elba and Kevin Durant.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) also issued guidance as early as March 1, explaining that asymptomatic people could indeed spread the coronavirus, even as it emphasized that folks with symptoms were more likely to be contagious.

The fact that Kemp and the state’s “top doctors” realized this over the past 24 hours is appalling and could cause thousands of lives. Georgia, so far, has about 4,748 cases and 154 deaths according to CNN.

 

After Kemp’s comments, people almost immediately thought about Stacey Abrams, who basically had a win stolen from her when she was running against Kemp for governor in 2018. At the time, Kemp was also the secretary of state, who oversees elections. The blatant conflict of interest resulted in what was called “dirty tricks” on election day that involved everything from missing power cords for voting machines to long lines delayed by more than four hours to polling places without an adequate number of voting machines. Abrams herself said she believed the election was “stolen” from Georgia voters.

 

Meanwhile, Abrams and her group Fair Fight are continuing to fight for marginalized groups by making sure they are represented in the U.S. Census. She explained how safe outreach is important even in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak in a talk with Craig Melvin on MSNBC. You can check it out in the video below.

 

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