(JTA) — The mayor of Las Vegas, Carolyn Goodman, offered her city as a test case for bringing people back to work during the coronavirus.
“I offered to be a control group,” Goodman said Wednesday on CNN. She also said “it was turned down” but did not say by whether it was the state or federal government.
Anderson Cooper, the CNN host, said that would mean people would likely die as part of the experiment.
“You don’t know that,” she replied.
Goodman said the city statistician explained to her that because people routinely commute to Las Vegas from other parts of the state, Las Vegas would not provide useful data.
The mayor does not have the power to reopen businesses — that’s a matter for the state government — but she has been on a publicity tear asking authorities to reopen the city and its casinos for business.
“We do deal in crowds and we have lived through all of these viruses, highly contagious diseases, and yet we have managed to continue to have wonderful conventions come up here,” Goodman said Tuesday on MSNBC.
Goodman said businesses would be responsible for ensuring clients kept the required social distancing of six feet from one another.
Goodman, an Independent, has been mayor since 2011. Her husband, Oscar, was mayor from 1999 to 2011. For years she was involved in her city’s organized Jewish community.
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