Linda Brown lost her father this summer to COVID-19.She died six days after symptoms appeared at her nursing home, and she said goodbye as a nurse brought the phone to her ear.
A month later, still grieving and frightened, Brown moved to New Mexico, where she said she had more confidence in the state’s leadership in the pandemic.
“I’m getting out of here,” he says. New Mexico has a court order.When I’m there, I’m safe.”
Brown told the story of his father’s death Thursday morning at the state Capitol, holding a homemade sign that read, “Those we enjoy are not expendable.”She and a dozen others called on officials to recognize the widespread loss of lives in Arizona and enact stricter public health regulations.
According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the soon-to-be-born state of New Mexico has twice the death of Arizona.
The rally organized through Marked through COVID, an organization founded through Kristin Urquiza in honor of her father, an Arizona resident who died of headaches from the disease on June 30.Urquiza accused Gov. Doug Ducey of reopening the state too quickly and invited the governor to his father’s funeral to hear his concerns directly.
More: ”I feel it was stolen from me’: circle of Maryvale relatives angry about the death of the father in COVID-19
Bill Whitmire, who led the occasion on Thursday, demanded that Ducey factor a state ordinance that requires masking and provide a safer monetary safety net for unemployed Arizonans.He and his wife survived the war with the coronavirus, but had lost their main source of income.and they feared they would be in poor health again.
“We are all eligible because of this state’s public policy,” he said.”COVID without borders”.
Each of the heart-shaped helium balloons worn by Elaine Salazar meant who had suffered or died from the coronavirus.Two balloons were for his son-in-law and his cousin, whom he lost in July.They were 43 and 65.
“I know that feeling,” Salazar said of the tightness in his chest that his circle of relatives felt with COVID-19.She had to breathe through a tracheostomy tube for more than a year and in detail familiar with the terrifying struggle for air.
He knew everything was going well when the hospital staff put his elern on a fan last month.
“I can only believe what those other people are going to know they’re going to die,” Salazar said.
State representative Raquel Teron shared the microphone and thanked the organization for taking action, she had previously translated from Spanish the words of Luz Wellman, a hotel painter who was fighting the virus and who is now torn between repainting and protecting her health. .
“It’s our duty to monitor and the other people of Arizona, and this is critical as we sail on COVID-19,” Teron said.She and other House Democrats have asked Ducey to open a special legislative consultation to discuss other public affairs.aptitude policies.
Too many other people in Arizona have lost their lives, he said.”And it’s because of our inability to act quickly.”
Contact your journalist at [email protected] or Twitter @helenwieffering.