(FOX 9) - During Tuesday's press conference on the COVID-19 situation in Minnesota, Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan spoke out about how the virus has personally affected her family and urged residents to follow guidelines from health officials.
Flanagan lost her brother to COVID-19 earlier this year and said that, "For some folks it continues to be the belief that this not serious, it’s just like the flu and if it is serious, it only impacts the elderly or those already sick. And as we’ve heard and continue to hear, that isn’t necessarily the case."
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Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan on Minnesota coronavirus situation
Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan shares her message during Minnesota's latest coronavirus situation update.
She also pressed Minnesotans to be careful in Thanksgiving plans and other get-togethers.
"I also want to speak to the magical thinking that I see happening around people who do take COVID seriously, who feel compassion for the health and well-being of others, but yet still believe that it won’t affect them personally - that this one hangout with friends, that this one watching movie, that this one Thanksgiving dinner won’t count," she said. "But if we keep acting like COVID won’t affect us, it will and it is."
Full statement:
"I have been open about losing my brother, Ron Golden, in March just as we were starting to see the seriousness of COVID-19. He was a Marine and tough as nails, but he was also a big teddy bear who was devoted to family and as we also lost my dad at the end of January, he knew that it was his duty to stay with my dad through his end of life care and until we buried him. He believed that that was his duty as a Marine.
He went home after my dad passed away and after caring so much for my dad and my family, he was then the one who needed care as he was diagnosed with aggressive cancer throughout his body. Just to be very honest with Minnesotans, this has been a very long journey for all of us. We’ve been doing months and months of enduring the pandemic, and being able to work in partnership with Governor Walz has been real honor that also has been a need for me because, frankly, I’ve thrown myself into work and haven’t necessarily really processed the grief that my family’s experienced.
I don’t want anyone else to endure what my family has done. We finally, after losing him in March, were able to lay him to rest in October outdoors, masked up as we put my brother’s ashes next to my dad. So, in this moment, I really want to share with folks that I know that there are still some people who believe that COVID will not impact them or their families. For some folks it continues to be the belief that this not serious, it’s just like the flu and if it is serious, it only impacts the elderly or those already sick. And as we’ve heard and continue to hear, that isn’t necessarily the case.
But I also just want to name that I’ve seen remarkable cruelty towards myself and towards others who have experienced the loss of a family member due to COVID. My brother had cancer, yes, but he also had a fighting chance. We could’ve... we were looking forward to the White Earth Pow Wow with family, bringing my daughter down to Tennessee to visit - knowing that he was enduring those treatments - and we never got a chance to say goodbye. His life had value, and the lives of everyone impacted by COVID-19, they have value. So, when people simply brush aside folks who have died from complications due to COVID-19, who had other conditions, they still had life left to live and COVID stole years from them and from their families and it is incredibly unfair.
I also want to speak to the magical thinking that I see happening around people who do take COVID seriously, who feel compassion for the health and well-being of others but yet still believe that it won’t affect them personally - that this one hangout with friends, that this one watching movie, that this one Thanksgiving dinner won’t count. But if we keep acting like COVID won’t affect us, it will and it is. I know it’s hard to forgo holiday dinners and get-togethers, and it is killing me that I will not be able to have Thanksgiving with my mom and I know so many of us are feeling that right now. But, there are empty seats at the table that will never be filled again, and we have to take this seriously. Please do everything you can to keep your tables full next year. Take care of yourself and take care of each other and remember that none of us [care] about your political party, who you are, your zip code… COVID will continue to spread as long as we allow it to."