After weeks of giving no hints as to what he planned to do when his executive order requesting that Arizona stay home expired on Thursday, April 30, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey finally told Arizonans on Wednesday, April 29, that some non-essential retail locations could open for business on Monday, May 4, and most others could open up by Friday, May 8, albeit with social distancing restrictions.
The governor stated that restaurants might be able to open by Tuesday, May 12.
The stay-at-home suggestion, which closed businesses but did nothing else, is set to expire Friday, May 15.
Several thousand businesses, mainly in the Phoenix area, announced prior to the statement that they planned to open Friday, May 1, regardless of what Ducey declared, because they couldn’t wait on a governor who gave no hint what he was going to do in the last month, other than tweet thanks to Valley Toyota Dealers for a donation, the Arizona Diamondbacks for hosting a blood drive and urge residents to fill out their Census forms.
The businesses argue that the governor’s executive order does not legally permit him to close, fine or arrest anyone, noting that the Arizona Revised Statutes cited in his order allows private entities to opt out of emergency declarations. Ducey threatened penalties, but dodged the question.
It’ll be interesting to see if any charges are filed against these business owners, if they are simply dismissed after the crisis passes or if they go through the court system and eventually result in a judicial ruling, confirming or denying whether such extraordinary executive orders, given by a single individual, can indeed infringe on due process and other constitutionally protected civil liberties.
Arizonans interested in exactly what the order states can read it on our website at redrocknews.com. We suggest you read it yourself, rather than watch the Cold Stone Creamery Captain’s press conference, which was agonizing — filled with pauses, missteps, ramblings and a stupid public relations spin about a light switch. In preparing for perhaps the most important speech of his political career, Ducey treated it like he was suddenly asked to give a wedding toast for a couple he met in the lobby.
Burying the lead, it took the governor a solid 17 minutes to get to the point before stating that his order would remain, sort of, but with modifications. Large spaces like theaters were not mentioned in the order, nor were bars, barber shops and massage therapists.
Ducey said he was going to rely on the data, but the data he presented showed us all with what we already knew and it contradicted what he said. Hospitalizations peaked April 5, excluding a spike on April 20, and have been declining. Daily deaths peaked on April 19. New cases have been on a downward slope. Testing has become slightly more accurate. Ducey said Arizona would see a surge in testing, but medical professionals have been testing 2,200 to 2,600 people weekdays since March 23. The “surge” has been flat. Arizona is ranked 49th in per capita testing, only ahead of the great state of Kansas. Most COVID-19 deaths in Arizona have been at congregate facilities and 37% of all deaths have been at nursing homes and senior care facilities, but Ducey and state health officials refuse to say which ones.
That being said, we grudgingly applaud the governor with a golf clap for loosening the restrictions on businesses that he, and he alone, imposed. For instance, for no real medical reason and in defiance of the data, the governor banned elective and nonessential surgeries and treatments a month ago, cutting the income of hospitals and putting us all at risk, not merely of COVID-19, but hundreds of other diseases and harming patients who need regular care.
Because of that, thousands of nurses and doctors are currently out of work, sent home from their hospitals because they had no patients and nothing to do — during a pandemic. Forcing nurses off their jobs to collect unemployment during a health crises is the epitome of bureaucratic absurdity.
Fortunately, elective surgeries resume May 1, letting nurses and doctors resume treating us for the thousands of other conditions that afflict human bodies.
It’s clear that Ducey’s order would not have been a simple “let’s reopen everything tomorrow, y’all” type of order, nor did we expect such. We knew the reopening would likely be gradual. Business owners, companies and workers will likely be slow to take advantage of the reopening process, and it makes sense. Customers will mostly stay home until they personally feel it is safe to go out to shop, eat or be in crowds and around strangers, which is what we argued for from the beginning: Individual Arizonans should decide for themselves what their personal safety protocols should be.
An NPR study revealed that 50% of Americans have been directly financially harmed by the pandemic, be it the loss of a job or hours for themselves or someone in their household, up from just 18% last month.
We encourage Sedona business owners who can, to choose to reopen and hire back the staff who needs to be employed most: Those with families, those who do not qualify for unemployment for whatever reason, those with an out-of-work partner or spouse who can’t come back to work, those teetering on bankruptcy or eviction and those most desperately in need of financial security. Arizonans want to return to work; we are not stupid, we can protect ourselves without being ordered how to by ineffective officials.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
