North Columbus News

Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Renacci is using the results of a study by medical researchers at Johns Hopkins to criticize the performance of Gov. Mike DeWine during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study, unpublished and not reviewed by peers, suggests the lockdowns that took place in the spring of 2020 reduced COVID-19 mortality by just 0.2% in the United States and Europe. Researchers said in the report, “We find little to no evidence that mandated lockdowns in Europe and the United States had a noticeable effect on COVID-19 mortality rates.”

Renacci, a former U.S. Representative from Ohio's 16th district, is running against DeWine in the GOP gubernatorial primary set for May 3. Renacci used the results of the study to question DeWine’s approach to the pandemic. Devine was among the first governors to close schools and ban spectators from attending sporting events.

"This study is another heartbreaking reminder of just how devastating Lockdown DeWine's so-called leadership has been for Ohio,” Renacci said on his campaign website. “While DeWine was earning slobbering praise from CNN, Joe Biden, and the Left for defying President Trump's leadership and aggressively locking down Ohio, DeWine and Amy Acton were tyrannically issuing order after order that caused hundreds of thousands of Ohioans to lose their jobs, shut down countless small businesses while giving massive corporations a pass, choked our economy, and severely disrupted our children's education. Now we know DeWine's lockdowns had no effect on public health, other than to cause needless suffering for millions.” 

The study also indicated there were significant increases in overdose deaths, learning loss for students, unemployment and domestic violence. Renacci is using the study to show DeWine was wrong to ignore former President Trump’s call to reopen the economy and mocked the early praise DeWine received.

“This was the defining test of Mike DeWine's governorship, and he failed it spectacularly,” Rennaci said. “DeWine ignored literally every opinion in the world outside of Dr. Fauci and destroyed the state because of it. Ohioans can't trust DeWine's judgment anymore, which is why he is going to lose in May."

The impact of lockdowns across the United State was devastating. The CDC estimated 100,306 Americas died from drug overdoses between May 2020 to April 2021. That was a 28.5% increase over the previous 12-month period.  A report by the National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice found an 8.1% increase in domestic violence incidents, while a Horace Mann study found that 97% of educators surveyed reported learning loss among their students during the pandemic. In addition, the Columbus Dispatch reported in March 2021 that Ohio lost 892,300 jobs in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic as the unemployment rate reached a state record 16.4% in April of 2020. An estimated two-thirds of those jobs have been recovered by March 2021.

Almost 900,000 people in the U.S. have died from COVID-19, including more than 33,000 in Ohio.

Dewine, 74, said in January he has no regrets about the decisions he made during the pandemic. He is running for re-election after being appointed to the job in 2019 by Gov. John Kasich. DeWine has been in public service for 41 years, including time in the Ohio State Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, and as Ohio attorney general and lieutenant governor.