How Has Lamont Handled The Coronavirus Pandemic? CT Patch Survey

CONNECTICUT — In "The American Crisis," Thomas Paine famously referred to our Revolutionary War as "the times that try men's souls."

Paine's words echo today amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Our New American Crisis has tried our souls, broken our hearts, drained our bank accounts, tested our faith and challenged our politics.

In the early days, the chain of command was fractured, and orders were quickly barked only to be slowly walked back. Masks were useless, until they became essential. The microbes were transmitted on surfaces, except they're not. Classrooms were deadly, when they weren't the safest places in the state.

Like the master wartime strategist, COVID-19 pitted brother against brother, in the parking lots at Shop Rite and the dessert line in high school cafeterias. Science became political, and politicians discovered science. With all the urgency of a wartime economy, pharmaceutical companies raced to find something that would give us an edge.

Connecticut was among the first into the breach last March when Westport residents found themselves contending with the fallout of a super-spreader party. Gov. Ned Lamont signed his first coronavirus-related executive order a week later, limiting the size of gatherings to 250 people, waiving the 180-day school year requirement, and authorizing the Department of Motor Vehicles to extend renewal deadlines.

That edict wouldn't be his last. The governor has issued over 90 executive orders during the pandemic. Regulations and restrictions have been enacted, lifted, modified and removed with a dizzying regularity as the state Department of Public Health worked to outmaneuver its adversary.

In the year-long assault, it's tough to find one business that has not suffered some collateral damage. Many shuttered early on, and are only now slowly, carefully, reopening. Many more will never return, casualties of the war.

Now COVID-19, the wily strategist, is adapting. Variants that spread faster, and are more resistant to antibodies developed by those who have already contracted the virus, have been spotted behind our lines.

The final tier of Lamont's age-based vaccine rollout battle plan begins April 1, with all adults becoming eligible. In prioritizing age for the state's vaccine administration, the governor broke ranks, deviating from the recommendations of The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which advised focusing on residents with comorbidities. It was a command decision made in the heat of battle, and time will tell if it was the right one.

Share your thoughts about Lamont and his administration's handling of the coronavirus pandemic through our survey below. It will be open to responses through Thursday at noon.

The survey is meant not to be a scientific poll, but only to give a broad idea of public sentiment.