Kansas Department of Health and Environment secretary Lee Norman was asked by a reporter Wednesday about the grade he would give to state residents for their attention to health and safety precautions against the coronavirus. Dr. Norman responded by saying there are two groups of people in Kansas. He would give a B plus to people who have been wearing masks and take the virus seriously at least most of the time. He gives a D grade to the people who think COVID-19 is a “bunch of hogwash,” and refuse to believe that the virus is any different from the flu.
At his weekly news conference, Dr. Norman said he would like to see people unify around the COVID19 pandemic. He would like to see leadership at the local, county and state levels to bring people to agreement on what must be done to bring the virus numbers down. He said he believes there will be very few naysayers eventually “because there’s just going to be enough disease burden and everybody will be touched in some way by this.”
The state was reporting 47,410 cases on Wednesday, an increase of 494 cases since Monday, but Dr. Norman said there has been delayed reporting because of the Labor Day weekend so numbers are artificially low. The state has reported ten new deaths to bring the total to 495.
