Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman delivers her State of the City address at City Hall, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2020.
Friday, April 17, 2020 | 2 a.m.
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In light of Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman’s comments Wednesday that the number of COVID-19 deaths in our community doesn’t warrant the social distancing measures we’ve adopted, we’d like to pose some questions directly to her.
Mayor Goodman, who among our doctors and nurses are you prepared to sacrifice to restart our economy? Please share with us the other hospital staff members and health care providers you would put at greater risk. Also, do you have a message for their families?
Madame Mayor, since it’s so easy to ask others to get sick or die, your statements prove you consider our police officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians expendable. How about grocery store staff and restaurant employees? Shall we thank them for their sacrifice on your behalf?
Of course, your wildly irresponsible comments also invite others to suffer for you.
Which casino and resort workers would you be OK with exposing? Which airport workers? Which public transportation drivers?
Here’s a big one, Mayor Goodman: Are you ready for our visitors to die? After all, it seems as if nothing says Goodman hospitality quite like exposing your guests to a dangerous illness!
And are you prepared for the chilling effect that would have on our tourism economy? Do you know vacationers who’d like to travel to a place where the mayor is waving off the advice of medical experts trying to beat back a disease with a sky-high kill rate? Would you be comfortable changing our marketing slogan to “what happens here is buried here”?
And that’s just the beginning. Every one of the people we’ve just mentioned — all of those doctors and nurses, police officers, grocery stockers, resort workers, the whole lot — have family and friends at home who would be at elevated risk of getting infected by the fast-spreading disease.
So, Mayor Goodman, who should become gravely ill so that the lights can come back on as soon as possible? Can you send us a list with black lines through the names?
And when you say the closures here “make no sense” and are “insanity,” have you considered running that by any health experts? Dr. Anthony Fauci, perhaps? What about the people of New York City? Do you think they’d believe it makes sense?
How about this: Why don’t you ask the families of people who have already died? Or just check in with people in ICUs about their excitement with your economy-first approach? If you do visit an ICU, look around. It doesn’t matter that you think COVID-19 is just the flu. The hospital staff risking their lives will not allow you to act as cavalierly with their lives as you wish to do with all of ours.
Plus, what does the economy look like on the other side if we follow your inane demands and visitors don’t know if it’s safe? How long will it take for our visitor numbers to rebound? Give us your best guess. Two years? Three? Four?
Do your gaming constituents agree with you — the ones who will actually open their businesses and invite healthy Americans to mix and mingle and gamble with infected ones?
Yes, we know the Trump administration just issued new guidelines for restarting the economy, but did you notice they leave it up to governors to decide when and how to reopen? And did you see that there first must be a decrease in confirmed cases over a 14-day period? If you’ll look, you’ll see there’s nothing remotely suggesting the trade-off of lives for business that you are promoting.
And we note with interest that you haven’t spent your time fighting for effective mass testing. Why is that, Mayor Goodman? It can’t be that you don’t care, can it? Mass testing would be a great first step to assure citizens and guests that the town is safe. No interest in that?
Madame Mayor, we know you’re not alone and a wild-eyed minority shares your irresponsible views. You’re not the only local leader who’s sounding more like President Donald Trump these days than a rational, reasonable Nevada official. Please pass along our questions to those who share your view: Who are they asking to die for the sake of your imaginary economic rebound?
After all, you’ve consistently been beating this drum. It’s at least the third time, by our count, that you’ve addressed the closures, not counting a make-nice video statement in which you appeared to have regained your senses.
Now that you’re back on your rant, though, we’ll leave you with a couple of closing questions to ponder.
Are you 100% sure you’re right about all of this? If so, why? Cite your medical experts, please. Cite the science. Aren’t you aware that a lot of other very knowledgeable people say the exact opposite?
And if you’re not 100% certain, can you tell us how many of us you’re willing to put in harm’s way on spec?
