US Congressman William Timmons came on the Bobby Mac show Tuesday afternoon to discuss the government’s response to COVID-19 and answer questions from listeners.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, many concerns have arisen from the public, and local, state and federal legislators have worked to respond to the virus.
Both the virus itself and these government responses have left many people concerned and, in some cases, confused.
Many listeners called in to discuss officers potentially pulling people over just to see where they are going because of the new Home and Work Order.
“The stay at home and work order is designed to force people to take the personal responsibility they should be taking – take the steps to slow the transmission, flatten the curve,” the congressman said. “Law enforcement’s not going to stop somebody and say ‘are you going to work?”
He said that law enforcement will, however, interject in situations where groups of people attempt to gather purely to socialize, for example.
Congressman Timmons continued that he would contact Greenville authorities to ensure that random stops do not happen in the area.
Another notable concern voiced by listeners concerns how long the various closures and stay at home orders across the county are expected to remain.
“We can’t do this for more than two–three–four more weeks. The number of businesses that will fail if this is in effect for two plus months will just be catastrophic,” Congressman Timmons said.
He continued that the economic effect such prolonged closure would have on businesses and families would be immense, but that these current closures are important to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and “flatten the curve.”
“In three or four weeks we need to have the ability to re-open,” he said. “We’re going to increase our healthcare system’s ability to respond to this so when we re-open… (at-risk individuals may still need to stay home for another couple weeks)… but everybody else, we’ve got to get back to work.”
Listen to the full conversation here.
