Amy Acton continues to dodge questions about Ohio’s COVID response

Amy Acton is not responding to questions about her actions during the COVID-19 pandemic, refusing to say whether she would have done anything differently.

Acton, who is running for governor as a Democrat, served as state health director at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, starting in February 2019. She resigned in June 2020 amid growing criticism of the state’s pandemic response she oversaw.

Ohio.News asked the Acton campaign whether she has any regrets about decisions made during the pandemic and, with the benefit of hindsight and what has been learned since 2020, if there are any policies or restrictions she would approach differently today. Additionally, Ohio.News asked whether there are measures she believes were necessary and would support again in a similar public health emergency.

It’s not the first time the Acton campaign has refused to answer questions from Ohio.News about the state’s COVID response.

“I’m a very ordinary person, not unlike you in many ways, that just ended up in a moment in the crosshairs of history,” Acton reportedly said during remarks at Ohio University in 2024.

However, the state’s approach to COVID and Acton’s role in particular drew harsh criticism from Ohioans at the time, who mounted protests. State lawmakers responded by limiting the power of the state health department director, passing Senate Bill 22, which removed the health director’s “ultimate” authority, limited the duration of health orders, and gave the legislature the power to rescind them.

“My career would not have put me in a political place. As a matter of fact, I’m very intentionally not political,” Acton added at Ohio University. “I always stayed out of politics.”

Apparently until now, that is. During her remarks at the Athens school, Acton said that the mortality rate for early hospitalized patients initially exceeded 50%.

“In those early days, the mortality rate was 50%. I started with that in March. By June, when we reopened, it was because we took swift, decisive action. The mortality rate had gone down to 5%. We learned how to save lives,” Acton said in a September 2025 podcast, Fox News reported.

The 50% figure caught the attention of state Sen. Kristina Roegner, R-Hudson, who sent a letter to the Ohio Department of Health “to get to the bottom of this.” The Acton campaign told Fox News the figure is specific to death rates of patients in hospitals, and the mainstream media has again been giving Acton cover for her statement.

“How much was Amy Acton relying on this false information as she was making decisions that damaged our state?” Roegner asked. “How closely was she working with Anthony Fauci, who, as we’re learning more and more each day, was making decisions, withholding information, valuable information, from the general public to increase his own fame and notoriety, including the potential risk of the vaccine on pregnant women and unborn children? It’s inexcusable.”

“Together, Amy Acton and Anthony Fauci wreaked havoc on our state and across this nation, leading to the greatest loss of education in our nation’s history,” Roegner added. “Those are educational years that can never be made up. …Their decisions also led to economic havoc, ruined livelihoods, and much more. We’ll get to the bottom of this. Ohio, you deserve to know the truth.”

Earlier this year, the Ohio Republican Party and representatives for Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy took a cutout of Acton to state fairs to remind voters about Ohio’s COVID policy. It’s not clear what Acton thought of the stunt, as her campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment at the time.

“I had quarantine power. … We were the very first to take action,” Acton said in her podcast interview, according to Fox News.