Over time, it has become evident that the national and state-level response to the COVID-19 epidemic was most damaging to school-aged children and small businesses. Now, Arizona Republican lawmakers are hoping to discover exactly who was harmed and what or who caused the harm.
The new Novel Coronavirus Southwestern Intergovernmental Committee is tasked specifically with examining the “federal, state and local efforts to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic, any fallout from such measures, and to identify any possible legal remedies against individuals or entities where appropriate.”
Arizona State Senator Janae Shamp will serve as Chairman, and Senator T.J. Shope will serve as Vice Chairman. Both currently lead the Senate Health & Human Services Committee. Joining them will be Arizona State House Rep. Steve Montenegro, U.S. Congressman Paul Gosar, Congressman Andy Biggs, and Congressman Eli Crane.
According to the Arizona State House press release, the Committee is expected to convene at the end of May to “gather information from experts and to provide the public with a formal venue to share their stories, experiences and grievances from the pandemic response by public health departments and healthcare systems.”
After evaluating the “protocols and overall public health guidance, funding incentives for health care facilities, injustices committed against families, businesses, workers and industries, potential preventative protections that may have been able to safeguard Arizona citizens against harms committed,” the committee will then produce a report that will be submitted to both the Senate President and the Speaker of the House before the end of 2024.
“We can be relatively certain that there will be other health emergencies in the future, and I hope that what we learn about the mistakes made during this response will better prepare us to properly handle any future crisis,” Montenegro told the Arizona Daily Independent.
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“The pandemic was a heartbreaking period for so many people on so many different levels,” said Shamp, an RN, in the press release. “I lost my job as a Perioperative Nurse because I refused to take the experimental vaccine that we now know has produced serious side effects in a number of otherwise healthy individuals. We’ve witnessed lives and livelihoods lost for no other reason than the mismanagement of COVID-19, and we are determined to hold those accountable for the injustices experienced.”
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On March 13, 2020, President Trump declared a national emergency concerning COVID-19. His declaration effectively left states to rely on federal guidance which recommended draconian measures that resulted in children being locked out of classrooms and small businesses being shuttered.
Governor Doug Ducey instituted the measures and refused to prevent localities from imposing even stricter restrictions on the public. The only pushback Ducey experienced came from the Republican-led State Legislature.
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Over three years later, in early April, President Biden signed Gosar’s legislation which terminated the COVID-19 national emergency declaration and thus terminated the executive branch powers granted under that act.
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