In a governor want to take but saving lives is a very easy go goal. My goal is to be unequivocally focused saving lives and protecting them. Good afternoon. Welcome to Washington Post live. This is also a special recording, a live recording my Public Opinion podcast. We have a lot to talk about my guest today, she has represented her state in congress and today shes said to be on joe bidens Vice President ial list, she is new mexico governor, michelle griffith. Welcome. Im delighted to be on your show. Nice to meet you and spend time with you. Likewise. Thank you for being here. I mentioned your the health secretary, a member of congress because they gave you incredible insight and how to deal with the coronavirus early on. You declared a state wide of emergency march 11 when there were only four cases in your state. What did you see that pushed you to move so quickly. Two things, you know this virus is moving so it comes with travelers. We are still dealing with folks trapped on a cruise in california and i dealt with the pandemic before. The earlier you start the more abruptly you start, the better control and management efforts you have. This is the problem, you cant see the pandemic, everyone falsely assumed it wont come here, it will be easier and we will wait until we see whats happening. But too many, its easier to explain, you have to move immediately otherwise it gets out of control. We are seeing all across the country now. You said youve been through pandemic before, are you talking ebola or Something Else . Two issues, a flu epidemic in 2017 and in 2008 and 2005, a flu vaccine shortage and when youre in a state where youve got higher capital issues related to chronic issues in children and adults in the higher death rate from influenza, a third the capacity of Healthcare Providers and hospitalizations, i literally had to join with illinois to import a vaccine from canada which you really couldnt do then and we found a loophole and brought it in and i protected the mexico reddens residents then. We took the mercury out of it and then when the epidemic was coming, the same thing. We didnt have investments in Public Health so getting the people, partnering with the limited private Program Provider group was challenging. Answering this is too long but in december, i knew this was coming, i asked my team to plan in early january so we began to have roundtables and start looking to secure ppe and testing supplies. Is interesting, he started focusing on this in december and then moving with your staff in january so you anticipated what could happen but did you anticipate be an action from the federal government in terms of having a National Strategy . No. I would not be spending my own specific time finding supplies, testing supplies and manufacturers trying to figure out which instruments would authorize an emergency use but not every instrument was available, not every agent is available, and then chasing ppe. In my wildest dreams, i wouldnt be dealing with the federal government who takes the things that you secured and redistribute them for the country while you want to be a country focus because it wasnt, it meant you are fighting with other governors and fema to get the adequate supplies and now we are seeing it occur again. Now that you have these outbreaks, governors in the same situation chasing found supplies and ppe trying to adequately cover their First Responders. Its the most outrageous environment of overworked on in my entire career. Now lets talk about the outrageous environment you are working in in your state. You had a press conference last thursday you said they are going in the wrong direction. Whats the latest data from your state and whats driving them . Two things, we believe. We flattened the curve early, we did have some significant issues in the northwestern part of the state, its pretty well known in the country, folks like the Navajo Nation that are dealing with really critical issues. Youve got People Living in remote areas without Running Water or electricity. Two, they are not near any healthcare services, largely supplied by the federal government. Two, they are dealing with the tristate region with distant different resources and the third thing is, they have a thicker population, chronic disease issues. Largely of failure of federal government and i can tell you ive seen incredible leadership by the Navajo Nation but early on, i signaled an alarm to the white house that we need to do something specific in Indian Country is more specific to the Navajo Nation because they are so at risk and i couldnt get a tristate strategy up and running, i couldnt get arizona to think about progressive testing strategies and setting up screening symptoms or triage systems at the border areas, arizona, utah and mexico, really challenging. I had trouble, not the kind of leadership i needed early on so except for that, new mexico was seeing a reduction in cases in other counties in the state so very slow opening. We introduce risk, it mitigated by peoples personal behavior and i need my surrounding states to be in the light situation. Surrounding states not in the situation, new mexicans and our border states, personal behaviors werent as good as they needed to be so we saw a huge rise, a jump in cases and we believe we will see a jump and mortality rate which im devastated by. Roll back many of those issues and now we are citing new mexicans and out of stators if theyre not quarantined out of stators if they are not Wearing Masks all the time, if youre outside of your house, you have to have a mask on. Youve given me so much to follow up on in the answer. Ill go back to what you said about the Navajo Nation, i wanted to zero in on something i think i missed, you said you reached out to the white house or alerted the white house but i did not hear you say you heard back from the white house. In march, i signaled the alarms that i was incredibly worried we didnt have a cohesive effort that would protect our sovereign nation and particularly the Navajo Nation, given where it sits, three states whether they call for utah, arizona mexico, a lack a sick infrastructure. I signed into law Capital Investment to connect them to Running Water, figure out the rest, unclear what the risks are and what we need to do with the Navajo Nation. Its not so much that i didnt hear back from the white house, more about staying the course with that leadership. Being cohesive and comprehensive, what does it look like and what does it mean . I ended up walking down a city, doing a lot of work in the county, delivering food and water to all of those surrounding the Navajo Nation chapter houses in the president and Vice President and counsel has a very extreme curfew, lockdowns and the only way that works if we bring it with them, federal government took them more than four to six weeks to get fema on the ground operating their they dont think they were nearly as effective until way too late in getting adequate testing supplies and even today, Indian Health service runs a covid19 test, it will take twice as long or even longer to get it back from a laboratory. If those tests came to our state laboratory, i can turn those around in 24 48 hours routinely. The sooner you know you are infected, the better we are at managing isolation in the state of new mexico that did this, not the federal government. Its interesting you can turn it around in new mexico in 24 to 48 hours. Ive been hearing from other states where it can take up to a week to get results back. Let me follow up on the second thing you mentioned and that was about people coming in from other states. Weve been talking about your state has relatively lower number of covid cases compared to colorado and arizona but Covid Patients are now being moved to albuquerque and treated there due to staffing and equipment shortages in arizona. I you concerned about potential risk this poses to new mexicans. You but we are. Weve been watching jonathan, and all of the surrounding states. Early on, i get it. New mexicans have every right to be both concerned about their personal wellbeing and safety and thats families and whats happening economically. I have a lot of new mexicans in areas that you get the healthcare in early on in the pandemic, they said the weve got plenty access to Healthcare Providers, if you went over the border, you have to come back and quarantine. A lot of pushback a lot about that but just what we predicted, if we arent careful, the hospitals filled up, you participated moving the virus, of course none of our hospitals, its illegal and even if it wasnt, no american would deny another american healthcare. It we are. But it does create real challenges in new mexico where i have a third of the Hospital Capacity and a third of the Ventilator Capacity in any other state in the nation. We are picking up support to texas and arizona. That means we have less available for the folks here which means i have to do an even better job at managing covid and new mexicans and more personal responsibility and many other americans. The fairness argument is really going to play out this political arena because we have an effective National Strategy, these challenges could have been incredibly mitigated tens of thousands of lives across this nation would have been saved. This is a good segue to the third followup and thats masks. Youve mandated new mexicans mask, you think there should be a National Mandate that we should wear a mask. Absolutely. I dont have any idea how masks became political. Nobody wants to wear them, i agreed with that basic statement. We dont wear masks, we havent done that, other countries efforts promote mask wearing. Its very uncomfortable and its not something we have effective experience at but they mitigate the transmission of the virus. No cure or vaccine, we dont have effective treatment so the only thing we have is to control the spreading rate of infection. If we can mitigate that by mask wearing, why wouldnt we . It means you can introduce more risk like businesses and schools and without them, you cant because you cant control the rate of infection. Going to give them a shout out, if they dont like it, i would say overall, they have been disappointed that ive mandated, now that we enforce the mandate but i will tell you weekend see national laboratories, an interesting way of reviewing social media and getting other anecdotal data and i tell you based on that without the barely productive degree of certainty, how much mask wearing is taking hold, we are seeing dramatic increases in the number of people Wearing Masks all the time. I cant tell you is that 80 which we would like to have, that means i can introduce more risk but it may be 30 to 55 closing in on 60 and 70 and this will make a huge difference in our state and for the new mexicans have sacrificed or tenant even if they have disagree making sure we just stayed together as we battle covid. I think them all because it hasnt been easy. Let me ask you about enforcement of the mask mandate. Have you gotten Law Enforcement on board with this . Masking because weve seen situations where Law Enforcement have made it clear they are not about this. Theres an interview on cnn where the sheriff, a local sheriff not in your state, this is america, people should have a choice of whether they want to wear a mask or not. Are you facing that kind of pushed back in new mexico from Law Enforcement . We are but some of it is respect, we will not assist you at the local level. I cant say primarily sheriff elected, i think people are treating this pandemic as a political situation. Its not a political situation. It doesnt care whether you are republican or democrat, young or old, whether your independent or decline to state, it does not care at all about a coast. He will attack you and discriminate leave. I think thats largely been a response, i got local Police Departments that are reluctant. Nearly diversely, nearly, everyone will educate folks and tried to get their First Responders to be better at Wearing Masks and they should be wearing a mask all of the time, First Responders. I am appalled when they dont. Several jurisdictions are now going to Issue Citations with the state police so i had to admit that we are having to blow that support and advocacy, im happy to also report weve got many more than a lot of states in this situation can expect early on in terms of making sure we do enforcement. Ive made it clear, the more people who wear masks, the better we are and the better it is for us as a state to carefully, methodically and slowly reintroduce risks in our goal, im not pulling out of the country to successfully open schools, it doesnt just bend the curve but crush the curve. Countries germany that fun the curve but still had an infection rate over one, they had trouble, they had to open participation and close and reopen and i think the u. S. Ought to work diligently not to be in that situation and im working diligently not to be in that situation. Im glad you brought that up because im wondering, what you make of the president of the u. S. Threatening schools if they dont reopen . Yes, threatening schools if they are reopened you already announced you have stopped contact sports. Do you think its responsible to open up schools on the normal schedule . I think each state needs to be really careful about their rate of infection and whether they bent the curve at all before they reopen schools. They will put the workforce at risk and you cant maintain it and while we dont believe super factors and we are seeing that kids dont seem to have the same in negative impact from having covid, theres a lot we dont know and new mexico is a higher rate of infection among children than any other state, or most states. But it way too high so im cautious about those risks. Heres the response to the federal government. First of all, it seems to be more about political attack on Public Education. They dont want to Fund Public Education but its been harsh and cruel about investments and strategies and outcomes for Public Education and i think frankly, congress has worked diligently to try to counteract many of these proposals that are discriminatory and for state that majority majority in terms of its population, but the divorce plan for Public Education is an acceptable. Part of the same pattern. The threat is when the president cant get them all on the same page. A month ago, he called us all jerks on the telephone for not reopening our economy. Its an outrageous threat, its incredibly immature and the worst, its dangerous because there isnt a National Strategy. I dont mind that the white house clear, education going back to school is really important, these kids need to go back to school but youd better weigh the risks and you ought to be a partner, youre not a hammer and this is no time to pretend to care about Public Education so i find this threat another shallow attempt at trying to get their way without having any real plan. The other thing i have to say is that one on one, members of the task force and the white house are really effective at solving many of the state problems. If i need more testing supplies, i could get the demand from berks to put us on the testing pilots. I can call the church of staff and they work on figuring that out. Tier two state which meant for some reason, i dont know how that got done, we couldnt get as many ppe and latest supplies. I got that removed. Weve had folks come here and navigate Even National laboratory support. Theyre working on the detention center, i want them to follow every federal detention, the same Prison Reform and activities that we had, making sure our inmates and officers are as safe as they can be. We had an outbreak, where did it come in . Federal detention center. In getting some support now but this could have been done as of zero strategy and again, we wouldnt be in this situation we are in with an outofcontrol National Infection rates. Rates the worst and so many more people have died and will died, its unconscionable to be in this situation. Weve got seven minutes and if not more than seven questions to ask. I will go to a question from a viewer who, youve mentioned several times people coming in from out of state after quarantine and this is from george henry, from oregon, you are requiring a 14 day quarantine, how are you enforcing that . Enforcing the quarantine is tough. We are asking our lodging industry dont accept, its a proactive approach, you should not have any reservations from books out of state unless they affirm their clear they have to stay in the cabin the entire 14 days before they go out. We are asking the same of our witnesses, we are restricting access to things like restaurants so i hope its not as enticing. I have to wear a mask, weve signed up at the airport, without staff who tell you its a 14 day quarantine. If youre pulled over or out without a mask and we find out you come from out of state, you will be cited for violating a 14 day quarantine. The hard topic of about enforcing it is we are not at every airport. People are driv