Governor Hogan appeared on Fox News Sunday to discuss the steps he’s taking to keep Marylanders safe amidst the Omicron variant and his fight to re-fund the police and pass bills to hold violent criminals accountable.
Governor Hogan on Lockdowns: “We’re taking steps to provide more support for our hospitals. We’re putting more into testing. We’re pushing monoclonal antibodies, and we’re trying to do everything we can to get the last 9.2% of our population vaccinated. We’re encouraging boosters, but we’re not anticipating any lockdowns at all. We’re not considering that.”
Governor Hogan on Prince George’s County School Closure: “It’s a terrible mistake and something we’re very opposed to…We’re going to make it very clear that we think it’s a mistake. We all want to keep our kids safe, but we’ve got protocols in place. There’s 100 cases in Prince George’s county out of 131,000 students. If there’s a particular outbreak in a classroom or in a school and you want to ramp up testing and make sure we keep those people safe, but shutting down an entire school system of kids that have already struggled with distance learning for nearly a year. It’s just outrageous and wrong.”
Governor Hogan on Vaccine Mandates: “We’re one of the most vaccinated states in America. As I’ve said, we’re 90.8% of everyone 18 and older is vaccinated in our state and 99.9% of our seniors without mandates. Look, I’m focused on convincing people that this is a great way to keep yourself and your family and your neighbor safe, but mandates aren’t working.”
**Governor Hogan on Rising Crime: **“We need more police. We need more investment. We’ve just invested another $150 million into state and local police, but I also have tough crime bills…for tougher mandatory sentences for people who commit violent crimes and commit crimes with a gun. And the big problem is we passed it through our senate…Our state house has refused to, and we’re going to continue to put pressure on them.”