Smucker Questions Wolf Administration’s Metric

LANCASTER, PA —Earlier this week, Rep. Lloyd Smucker (PA-11) sent a letter to Pennsylvania Department of Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine, requesting additional information on the use of their reopening metric: a county having fewer than 50 new cases per 100,000 population for 14 consecutive days. This metric was one of the chief criteria used by Gov. Wolf's Administration in allowing counties to move to the first phase of the reopening process.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health, in response to a media inquiry from LNP|LancasterOnline, published in a May 22, 2020 article stated the metric is an "incident rate" which was "recommended" by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The article further states that this information is "internal CDC information." No other state across the country is reported to have used this metric in regard to considering when to reopen.

Additionally, the letter states: "Communication between my office and the CDC Office of Legislative Affairs revealed that the CDC made no recommendations to your office on the use of the 50 per 100,000 metric in the context of safely reopening."

"The economic devastation felt by families and small businesses across my district is real. With the state's unemployment rate skyrocketing to over 15 percent in April and many small businesses closing their doors for good, Gov. Wolf owes it to the people of Pennsylvania to provide a full accounting and complete transparency on why this metric was used to keep counties on lockdown for months. Particularly, when no other state across the nation is reported to have used this metric in regard to reopening, it raises serious questions about Wolf's handling of this crisis. I look forward to the Pennsylvania Department of Health's thorough and detailed response," said Smucker.

A full text of Rep. Smucker's letter to Secretary Levine can be found here.

###