Las Vegas’ mayor offers to sacrifice her city as a ‘control group’ to prove social distancing may not be necessary
When someone thinks of Las Vegas, they imagine a place where there are no restrictions, limitations, and statistics. Unfortunately, in the world we live in today, considering the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, restrictions are exactly what we need to keep ourselves and our families safe.
Shockingly, in an interview for Anderson Cooper 360°, Mayor Carolyn Goodman suggested the need for a ‘control group’ to determine whether the stay-at-home orders are needed.
She claims that the social distancing limitations may not be the tool that has kept the coronavirus death toll in America below the early, catastrophic estimates, as reported by Intelligencer.
Las Vegas Mayor offers city as "control group", "we offer to be a control group" to see how many people die without social distancing. pic.twitter.com/NESE2hActE
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) April 22, 2020
What’s more, the mayor of Las Vegas generously offered that her city can serve as a control group, allowing the residents to go back to their normal life, to see if they really need the strict lockdown regime.
She believes that people need to continue living their regular lives, denying the need for self-isolation precautions. In the interview, Goodman said:
“We have to open up. We have to go back. Our bus drivers, our room cleaners, our restaurants.”
Clearly unpleasantly stunned by the mayor’s words, the CNN journalist, Anderson Cooper, asked if the social distancing wasn’t the exact reason why the numbers have been what they are. Goodman didn’t deny the rightfulness of what Cooper emphasized, but she insisted they need to use a control group.
“How do you know until we have a control group? We offered to be a control group.”
In other words, the mayor of Las Vegas was offering for her people to become test subjects to see if they truly need to be under lockdown, or they can live their normal lives as usual.
Later on, when asked about how would buildings with circulated air, such as casinos, would operate, without putting thousands of lives at risk, Goodman responded:
“That’s up to them to figure out.”
Las Vegas mayor Carolyn Goodman, who has been openly advocating for Vegas casinos and hotels to completely open up, literally tells Anderson Cooper she has no responsibility to figure out how to do it safely.
"It is up to them!" pic.twitter.com/d9LDRZX9Sl
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) April 22, 2020
Apparently, Mayor Carolyn Goodman wasn’t completely aware of public health measurements during a pandemic. Furthermore, Cooper even tried to show her a graphic from a Chinese study explaining how air-conditioning can spread the virus in indoor settings, but her take on that was: “This isn’t China, this is Las Vegas.”
Even though Goodman denies their truthfulness, statistics do show that a majority of Americans support social distancing measures.
This means that these people wouldn’t put their lives in danger only to travel to the resort city.
Only 12% of Americans say the measures where they live go too far. https://t.co/TuSjj17apj
Twelve percent.
— John Dickerson (@jdickerson) April 22, 2020
Distressingly, the mayor of Las Vegas isn’t the only politician insisting on reopening the country at the expense of their constituents. On Monday, April 20th, Dan Patrick, the Lieutenant Governor of Texas, stated:
“There are more important things than living, and that’s saving this country for my children and grandchildren and saving this country for all of us. I don’t want to die. Nobody wants to die, but man we gotta take some risks and get back in the game and get this country back up and running.”
Moreover, despite the numerous warnings from health experts about the possibility of a second outbreak, Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, has already allowed many businesses in the state to reopen.
Anderson Cooper’s reaction to Goodman’s words clearly expresses his opinion about her carelessly offering to sacrifice her people for the sake of reopening the city.
We are all @andersoncooper pic.twitter.com/r9iUB1n6Fj
— Jason (@JasonBSTL) April 22, 2020