In response to a Tweet I posted last week about Gov. Ralph Northam, a local priest responded by quoting a nun who’d seen one of the governor’s press conferences and thought Virginia’s leader was in need of prayers

“…that is a man without hope,” she said.

Amen, Sister.

Northam’s the captain of Team Apocalypse. The grim reaper of governors.

The people working for him? Equally glum and seemingly unmoved by the plight of ordinary Virginians who have been tossed out of work.

Instead of assuring folks that the commonwealth will reopen before small businesses are driven into complete ruin and families are buried under a blizzard of unpaid bills, Northam holds press availabilities that assure the public this shutdown will be long and painful.

There is not much light at the end of Northam’s tunnel.

During a virtual town hall last week, for instance, we learned that Northam plans to keep the beaches closed through July instead of June 10. A gut punch to the tourist industry.

But on Friday it was Virginia’s health commissioner who turned faint hope into despair.

After the governor outlined how he planned to slow-walk the reopening of the commonwealth, beginning with a “Phase One” that will be launched only after a set of tough metrics are met, the health department chief predicted that those suffocating restrictions would be in place for years.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that Health Department head Norman Oliver told them that Phase One - which will keep many businesses closed - would be in effect until a treatment or vaccine for Covid-19 are available.

“I, personally, think Phase One will be a two-year affair,” Oliver said. “There are a lot of people working on this, and I hope they prove me wrong, but I don’t see it happening in less than two years.”

Insanity. Naturally, it scared the bejabbers out of people.

Social media reacted as you might imagine it would: With calls for rebellion, resistance and recall for state officials. After all, no one else in the country - perhaps on the planet - is hanging that kind of crepe.

On Saturday, the governor’s office backpedaled. But instead of blaming Oliver, it seemed to point an accusing finger at the media.

"Phase One will not last for two years," read a statement from the governor on Saturday. "We need to keep working together to beat this disease — not spread fear and misinformation.”

Misinformation?

Sorry, the only thing the The Times-Dispatch did was quote Mr. Oliver. His statement was clear. 

Earlier this month we published a hard-hitting piece by James Sherlock, “The Canterbury Tragedy and the Failed Virginia Department of Health,” that blamed the gothic horror taking place in a Henrico County nursing home that caters to Medicaid patients - 49 dead from Covid-19 at last count - on lax oversight by Oliver’s department.

“The Virginia Department of Health is a failed institution with a failed leader, Dr. Oliver,” wrote Sherlock. “No amount of hand waving and misdirection will change that fact. We need a new Health Commissioner.  Too late for a new Governor.”

Sherlock’s right.