LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman called the statewide shutdown one of "total insanity" during a city council meeting Wednesday morning, and she urged the governor to allow the state to reopen.
"This is truly an opportunity for having a bully pulpit as your mayor," began Goodman, "and I am going to take advantage of that before we begin our public comment."
The mayor challenged Gov. Steve Sisolak's directive to close nonessential businesses during the coronavirus pandemic in an effort to minimize its spread, saying there is "no data" to support why the city is shutdown and there is "no plan in place" for navigating through it or coming out of it.
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Experts, she says, tell her the coronavirus is not going away any time soon. Goodman compared it to the common flu and other viruses.
"This virus, or a derivative thereof, will be part of what we work through going forward," she said.
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Goodman then acknowledged the deaths across the state related to COVID-19, though she says Nevada has lost 128 individuals when the Department of Health and Human Services reports 131.
She goes on to say those deaths are just a small percentage of Nevada's total population.
Listen to Mayor Goodman's full remarks:
Of the deaths, Goodman said:
We are a state of 3.2 million people, and we'll soon find out how that changes as we go through our census shortly. 2.3 of us live down here in Southern Nevada.
Tragically, we have already lost to this virus 128 individuals in Nevada. [HHS reports 131] Many with complications attributed, in part, to COVID-19.
Let me assure you that our sympathies and condolences to those who have lost loved ones.
But let me tell you - with a population of 3.2 million living in Nevada, those whom we lost represent less than a half of 1% of our population, which has caused us to shutdown the entire state and everything that makes Nevada unique.
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Goodman went on to discuss the surge of people who have filed for unemployment and the stress that the shutdown has put on small businesses and the tourism industry.
"It makes no sense," she said. "It makes no sense."
Goodman called for the state to reopen, saying in part:
From my perspective, we must open our city. We must open Southern Nevada and we must open the State of Nevada.
We cannot live going forward with the medical health industry telling us that this virus is going to be around longer than a month or two, maybe even a year.
We cannot keep our heads in the sand and think its going to go away.
We're adults with brains who can know what to do, to wash our hands and take all precautions not to spread this disease. But we cannot put out head in the sand and think it's going to go away.
From my perspective, I am asking: Open the city. Open Clark County. Open the state.
For heaven's sake, being closed is killing us already.
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She closed her remarks by saying, "Remember the data."
"That's less than one half of 1%, tragically, have been lost," she added. "And the entire 3.2 million people have been brought to their knees."
