Lauren McLean took on Boisean’s COVID-19 questions. Here are 3 things we learned in her Q&A
More than a dozen mayors across the country answered questions from constituents on Friday, providing answers on efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in their cities and what comes after.
Boise Mayor Lauren McLean was one of the government officials who participated, answering questions of those who used the hashtag #AskMayorMcLean.
The effort, said Bridget Coyne, public policy director at Twitter, gave people the chance to have a “one-to-one connection” with their leaders.
“The goal is to make sure that constituents can get the public safety information they need,” Coyne said in a phone interview. Twitter has also created special emojis and hashtags to encourage people to practice proper hygiene and stay safe.
In her interview, McLean answered questions on everything from the city’s parks — they’re still open, but playgrounds are closed and the public is urged to respect social distancing rules — to economic recovery. Here are the biggest takeaways from her hour-long Q&A:
1. McLean would change things if she were governor
Twitter user @Everett88BOI asked McLean if she were governor, “what actions would you like to see enacted on a state level for pandemic situations like COVID-19, to aid cities like Boise?”
She responded that she would want data transparency, a rapid increase in testing and the “infrastructure to take action based on testing.”
She also pointed to a website private Utah businesses put out with the partnership of the state and local governments, testutah.com. The website has people answer questions to determine if they may need to get tested for COVID-19 and to provide tips for prevention. If someone has symptoms, it helps to set an appointment for that person to get tested.
It also helps to collect information to send to the CDC and Utah’s Department of Health to help epidemiologists track disease hotspots, although that information will be deleted later, one of the companies involved told Salt Lake City’s Fox 13.
2. You may be staying at home a little longer
“We must prepare ourselves for a long haul,” McLean said to @simjasra in response to a question about projections on when isolation measures may be lifted.
She said that people don’t get to choose the dates when the outbreak is over — “it’s the virus that chooses,” she wrote.
“I can only issue 30 day orders, and they will be extended if the virus requires it,” she added.
In Idaho, Gov. Brad Little’s 21-day stay-at-home order ends April 15, though he said Thursday that “something will take its place” afterward.
Experts at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation predict Idaho’s “peak resource use” won’t come until 11 days later, on April 26. At that point, the state could be short on ICU beds. Even after then, people will still continue to be infected.
Answering a question from Twitter user @istandleet with those same predictions, McLean said she is being realistic about the fact that the coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, “hasn’t differentiated by state lines.”
“We have to take action. It’s why I took action early, and will continue to do so,” she wrote. “And we have to test more, with followup.”
She also answered a question, also from @istandleet, about ticketing people who leave their homes for essential reasons.
People are still allowed out to exercise and shop for essential needs, McLean said, and enforcement officers are educating people on the stay-at-home order. Boise Police Department spokeswoman Haley Williams told the Statesman last week that BPD “will not be proactively searching for people violating the governor’s order.” Spokespeople for the Meridian Police Department and the Ada County Sheriff’s Office said the same.
3. Boise is still preparing for what comes after COVID-19
Even while working on preparing Boise for the spread of COVID-19 — she said the city is looking at the role it can play to help medical facilities with supply problems — Boise is working on what comes next, McLean said.
That includes economic recovery efforts, although she didn’t offer specifics in her tweets. She told Twitter user @TimboHays that the city is “committed to advocating to ensure that our region receives recovery dollars and our residents can be made as close to whole as possible.”
Boise has “convened several large phone calls, and our team is working on steps to prepare to current needs (health and safety) and at the same time working on a long term economic development strategy to address recovery and resilience,” she wrote in a follow-up tweet.
This story was originally published April 3, 2020 at 3:38 PM.
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