Bucks Commissioners Respond To COVID-19 'Fearmongering' Claim

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — Bucks County commissioners on Monday reacted strongly to an accusation of "fearmongering" in their response to the coronavirus outbreak.

During an online town hall session, commission Chairwoman Diane Marseglia was reading a question submitted by a resident when the question referred to government response to the virus with that term.

"I'm just taking a minute here," Marseglia said, after finishing the question. "I know a few people who have lost people to COVID. I don't think they'd think of it as fearmongering. It's been very painful to them."

As of Monday, there have been 7,288 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Bucks County and 519 deaths, according to the Bucks County Department of Health.

Over the past couple of weeks, new case numbers in the county of roughly 640,000 people have dropped to somewhere in the low 20's every day — a level health officials describe as a solid baseline.

RELATED: 32-Year-Old Bucks Man, Otherwise Healthy, Dies From Coronavirus

That's a far cry from the outbreak's peak in Bucks County in the spring, when new cases were numbering in the hundreds every day. Marseglia said the improvement is because Bucks followed state guidance on public closures and social distancing.

"Right now, in Bucks County, it doesn't look very scary," she said. "But, in March and April it looked scary and we did the right things."'

Commissioner Bob Harvie noted how, during those times, there were Bucks County residents angry at coronavirus measures put in place by Gov. Tom Wolf and citing the governors of states like Georgia and Florida as examples to follow.

Months later, those states continue seeing some of their highest coronavirus numbers yet, while numbers in places like Bucks County have plummeted.

"The record is pretty clear at this point that how it was handled in states here, like New York and New Jersey and Pennsylvania, certainly had a much more scientific and measured approach to making sure we were doing things the right way," Harvie said. "We've seen all the outbreaks in states where they didn't think it was a big deal."

Gene DiGirolamo, the lone Republican on the three-member commission, said he, too, heard the calls to open up Bucks County, even members of his own party calling on the county to go against Wolf's color-coded reopening plan.

"I can understand that but again, just last night, a very good friend of mine lost his grandfather to the virus," DiGirolamo said. "He had been on a ventilator for a couple of weeks and he just passed away last night.

"Your health, your safety and your welfare are our number-one concerns and we're going to be making decisions based on what's best for the residents of Bucks County."

Harvie noted that, with the coronavirus, government officials worldwide were faced with a pandemic the likes of which none of them had ever seen.

"This is the worst pandemic in over 100 years," Harvie said. "Literally, no one alive today has ever had to govern through anything like this, anywhere in the world. There is no playbook for this — we're writing it as we go along.

"We're doing things here in Pennsylvania that are cautious and trying to protect every life, because every life is precious to someone."