Written by Michael Palomba
North County leaders would like to see businesses open by May 1st, and they are fighting hard for it.
This morning San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond held a virtual press conference with a group of mayors from cities around North County. The mayors included were Carlsbad Mayor Matt Hall, Escondido Mayor Paul McNamara, Oceanside Mayor Peter Weiss, San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones, and Vista Mayor Judy Ritter.
The conference was organized to discuss the opening of additional businesses beginning May 1, with other things like recreational activities being contemplated as well. The conference was held via Zoom and the officials also discussed the innovative methods that businesses are using to abide by social distancing regulations.
San Diego News Desk reached out to Supervisor Desmond after the meeting for his thoughts on the current status of the county and where the focus ought to be.
“We are trying to move from essential to safe. How do we safely open up more businesses? We need to use the same tools that essential business are using and apply them to our non-essential businesses,” said Desmond. “If you can move thousands of people through grocery stores safely, we should be able to move them through other businesses well.”
Desmond makes a worthwhile observation here. If hundreds of patrons can safely shop in a grocery store at the same time, there’s no reason why we can’t expand this to other businesses that have been forced to close down.
Tens of millions of people have filed for unemployment in the past few weeks, and claims are not approved instantly. Many families and individuals are struggling, and what they want—what they need—is to go back to work.
“This is about jobs. This is about getting people back to work so they can put food on their table,” Desmond added.
We are learning more and more about COVID-19 everyday, and right now things are improving. Testing for antibodies indicates that the fatality rate for the virus is far lower than originally believed. Additionally, some countries have had success without issuing stay-at-home orders and other mandatory restrictions.
Take Sweden, for example. Unlike many other countries, Sweden did not destroy its economy and peoples’ way of life with intrusive mandates, instead relying on trust. It was believed that Swedes could practice things like social distancing and hand washing without government intervention, and this has proven to be the case.
The Swedish Ambassador says that Stockholm, the country’s capital, is on track to reach herd immunity in May. While the United States is just beginning to think about relaxing social distancing policies, Sweden, or at least Stockholm, is nearing immunity.
The U.S. has a much larger population and there are many other factors involved, but based on Sweden’s results, it’s fair to question if all the lockdowns were really necessary in the first place. Nonetheless, the focus now needs to be on reopening the economy safely and effectively.
“We’re asking the state and health care professionals to take a look at the situation [and] come up with a balanced approach,” said Escondido Mayor Paul McNamara. “People are suffering; this can’t go on forever. We need to find some kind of path.”
San Diego County’s existing stay-at-home order expires on April 30, and according to Desmond, we may see a new order that allows for the opening of certain businesses and activities as soon at May 1. Whatever the case, we’ll have our answer in the coming days.
