LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic, former Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak still remembers the lists.
Deaths. Hospitalizations. Cold statistics that hid the human faces and suffering behind some of the toughest decisions any Nevada governor has ever had to face.
Former Gov. Sisolak reflects on the trials and tribulations of a pandemic state
"I remember, I'd come in in the morning, wearing my mask in my office, and the first thing I'd get from my staff is a daily report that showed how many people in Nevada died, how many were in ventilators, what hospital occupancy was," Sisolak said.
"The biggest thing that I will never forget as long as I live is the death total."
And the news was not good, not for a long time. Hospitals were so crowded with COVID-19 patients, makeshift rooms had to be set up in parking garages and convention centers. There was a shortage of personal protective equipment, such as masks and gowns. Ventilators were scarce. And governors were struggling to find all of those things on their own.
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For a governor used to getting requests for political favors, COVID turned everything around.
"I'd get a phone call from a constituent that asked for a favor. I said, 'sure what would you like to do?' [He said] 'I'd like to get in the hospital to see my parents or see my spouse or whatnot,'" Sisolak recalled.
"You couldn't get in. I mean, you had nurses who were so incredible, and doctors, they were actually Face-Timing family members so that they'd have the opportunity to say goodbye to their loved ones because they were dying."
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Sisolak — who declared a state of emergency on March 12, 2020, and days later ordered schools and non-essential businesses to close — said the state did its best in trying to communicate information about the crisis to the public.
But there were challenges. While New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo led high-quality daily broadcasts, Nevada had to make do with what they had, including a broadcast camera supported by a pile of books, the governor recalled.
The closure orders enraged some people, including those who'd lost their jobs. The governor received death threats. "But still, I go back to the fact that we saved lives. There's no doubt in my mind, we saved a lot of lives as a result of the policies that we implemented," he said.
That's not to say everything went smoothly. Sisolak frankly acknowledges the state was unprepared in many ways for the pandemic, especially the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, which was swamped with applications for joblessness aid and took far too long to get help to people.
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"Our unemployment system wasn't set up to handle as many people," he said. "We never anticipated there would be that much demand for unemployment at one time."
Although he initially thought the COVID shutdown would last about two weeks, it stretched to three months before daily health statistics showed a slowing of new infections. That lag made the criticism all the more intense.
"There was a lot of resistance," he said. "It was vocal resistance, very vocal resistance from some individuals, that added to the fear of it and it made it more difficult."
One of those vocal critics was Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman, who famously said in a CNN interview with Anderson Cooper that she favored allowing Las Vegas to reopen as a "control group." The interview was widely panned, although Goodman stood by her remarks, and even said recently in an interview on KNPR's "State of Nevada" that she thinks she's owed an apology from Cooper.
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Sisolak recalls being incredulous when he heard the remarks.
"I was shocked at the time. I couldn't believe it at the time," he said. "But there was no way I was going to gamble. Las Vegas is a gambling town, but I'm not gambling with the lives of the people of the state of Nevada or the city of Las Vegas. I'm just not going to do that. And the thought of using it as a control group, and the deaths that would have resulted from that is just mind boggling."
One thing that Sisolak said he never considered during the pandemic is politics, although he was aware that his decisions would have inevitable political consequences. One businessman, Robert Bigelow, owner of Budget Suites of America and Bigelow Aerospace, was so enraged by the shutdown orders that he ended up heavily supporting Republican Joe Lombardo, who defeated Sisolak in his bid for re-election in 2022.
But Sisolak says he has no regrets.
"But knowing that, and going back, I wouldn't change anything that we did," he said. "I wouldn't trade having been re-elected to lose one more life. I just wouldn't do that. Just to the person whose life that was, I mean, they relied on me to do the best job we possibly could. I believe we did that."
If Nevada could not have anticipated the pandemic before it happened, how about now? Is the state any more ready today if another global virus strikes?
"I think that's a great question. I think we're probably more ready, but we're not completely ready," Sisolak said. "There was no book written on how to deal with a pandemic. There was no information in how to deal with this. ... But to be able to say, are we totally ready? No, I don't think we're totally ready. And I'm not saying that in a critical manner. I'm just saying I don't think that you could ever be 100% totally ready. I just don't think you can."
▶ Watch Full interview with former Gov. Steve Sisolak five years after the COVID-19 pandemic
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