Both Sioux Falls Mayor TenHaken and Governor Noem have issued stay at home orders that have zero teeth (but nice stamps on them). It reminds when they tell you to seek shelter in the basement when you hear a tornado siren (if it goes off), but you don’t really have to.
Like I have said, I’m still on the fence of what employers should stay open and what employers should not, but if you are going to have a stay at home order, you need to make it legally binding, otherwise it has just as much value as a virtual birthday card.
Most people already have gotten the message from the Feds and CDC, stay home, wear masks, keep distance. How is the messages from Paul and Kristi any different if they don’t have legal teeth?
They mean nothing.
I of course do not envy their jobs right now, but they did sign up for this. That means leaders make hard decisions after consulting experts. You already did the consulting, you already did the advising, now it is time to make a firm decision backed up by law. And if your legal team is not willing to make that happen, they need to be sent on a permanent stay at home order. It is not the time to play Libertarian Conservative Cowboy. You can’t have it both ways. You are either for public safety and health or the free enterprise system. With this virus, they cannot co-exist. Once we get over the peak, we can concentrate on bringing the economy back, but it can’t happen with a bunch of sick and dead people. Now is not the time to be eating cake.