Right now, Arizona has identified relatively few confirmed cases of Covid-19: over 1,400 as of Wednesday, along with 29 deaths. However, it has also ranked last in the nation for testing, meaning the data on the full spread of the virus is likely to be patchy at best.
Public health experts expect different parts of the country to be hit with different intensities; not every city is likely to become New York, which is now overwhelmed by severe cases. But the Arizona approach is raising questions about the limits of just how diverse our response should be—and at what point ideology should take a back seat to the demands of public health.
‘We don’t live in Communist China’
Ducey’s new order, called Stay Home, Stay Healthy, Stay Connected, attempts to weave a public health message with an ethic of individual responsibility. The goal, according to its text, “is to ensure that people maintain physical distance to the maximum extent feasible, while enabling essential services to continue, protecting people’s rights and slowing the spread of COVID-19 to the greatest extent possible.”
Among those businesses permitted to remain open are “professional and personal services” such as legal and accounting firms, along with banks, real estate appraisals and titling (which covers many pawn shops), and outdoor recreation activities. This has led critics to charge it’s endangering Arizonans who hold jobs that are far from essential; one example I heard several times is staff that need to wash golf balls on the state’s countless public and private courses. The most controversial exemption is for personal hygiene, which includes barber shops and salons, and even nail spas.
Source: politico.com
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