Wendy Bell, Ryan Deto and Governor Wolf

Luckily, the City Paper's Ryan Deto has already done most (if not all) of the heavy lifting to this story:

A large majority of Pennsylvanians approve of both the social distancing guidelines currently under order in the commonwealth due to coronavirus and of Gov. Tom Wolf's job at handling the pandemic.

But these facts don’t seem to care about Wendy Bell’s feelings.

Despite a recent poll showing only 17% percent of Pennsylvanians think the social distance orders are too strict, and 59% of Pennsylvanians approving of Wolf’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bell still managed to claim the opposite during an April 24 broadcast of her show on KDKA Radio.

In fact, she went as far as to claim that Pennsylvanians are victims under Wolf’s orders and said that those who disagree with the closures are like the victims of the Benghazi attacks of 2012.

There's one place that I'd like to address that Deto doesn't. A few minutes before the Benghazi stuff, Bell says this:

There is this tremendous disconnect between people who are struggling right now - the millions upon millions of us who are struggling right now in the midst of this pandemic, the shutdown, some of these highly totalitarian restrictive closures by these governors who think they have the ability to just blanket rule whether or not you have the ability to go out and make a living or feed your family, right?

So Governor Wolf's closures are not only restrictive but totalitarian. And she only thinks that he has the authority to make such "blanket" rules.

So DOES Governor Wolf have that authority?

Let's take a look at the Governor's Stay At Home order. It includes this:

WHEREAS, as of March 6, 2020, I proclaimed the existence of a disaster emergency throughout the Commonwealth pursuant to 35 Pa. C.S. § 7301(c)

And so what does 35 Pa. C.S. § 7301(c) say?

A disaster emergency shall be declared by executive order or proclamation of the Governor upon finding that a disaster has occurred or that the occurrence or the threat of a disaster is imminent. The state of disaster emergency shall continue until the Governor finds that the threat or danger has passed or the disaster has been dealt with to the extent that emergency conditions no longer exist and terminates the state of disaster emergency by executive order or proclamation...

And then there's this:

WHEREAS, these means include isolation, quarantine, and any other control measure needed. 35 P.S. § 521.5.

And so what does 35 P.S. § 521.5 say?

Upon the receipt by a local board or department of health or by the department, as the case may be, of a report of a disease which is subject to isolation, quarantine, or any other control measure, the local board or department of health or the department shall carry out the appropriate control measures in such manner and in such place as is provided by rule or regulation.

There are more regulations but you get the picture. Looks like Governor Wolf does have the authority to declare a state of emergency and to declare a shelter in place directive. What Wendy Bell calls "totalitarian" is actually quite legal.

And considering how many Americans have died on Trump's watch (more than 50,000), absolutely necessary. Lifting the shelter in place one day early would mean more people will die.

Just so that the economy will get healthy sooner rather than later.


Any sort of comparison between that and Benghazi is just bat-shit crazie.