EDITORIAL: When will Nevada join other states in moving forward?

Governors across the country are slowly moving to reopen their economies after weeks of shutdowns spurred by the coronavirus. What is Nevada’s plan to join them?

Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Texas, Tennessee and South Carolina have begun allowing shuttered businesses to unlock their doors. While Republicans lead each of those states, the urge to move forward is bipartisan. Colorado, with a Democratic governor, is poised to loosen restrictions this week. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has floated the idea of letting upstate areas come back, as hard-hit New York City remains on lockdown. Even Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat who imposed perhaps the strictest virus-related mandates in the country, has begun to let up on the gas, easing various edicts and announcing Monday that certain segments of the economy would soon be permitted to emerge from hibernation.

The roadmap forward for Nevada, however, remains unclear. Gov. Steve Sisolak offered no concrete path out of this morass, insisting last week only that he will base any decisions on “science” rather than profits. This crisis, however, requires far more leadership and nuance than that. Public health concerns must indeed be paramount, but they cannot ignore the devastating toll inflicted by the widespread economic destruction that grows each day.

Gov. Sisolak will be under intense scrutiny at his next Tuesday briefing — and with good reason. Nevadans want and deserve more details about how and when they may begin a return to normal life. If the governor remains uncomfortable setting a specific date, he should, at the very least, reveal how long he’s willing to let the shutdown endure if public health benchmarks prove elusive. Another month? Two? Does he have a plan to proceed absent the eradication of the coronavirus?

“We must consider options for reopening the economy in a world in which we have not completely controlled the COVID-19 pandemic,” Avik Roy of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, argued over the weekend in The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Roy notes it may be difficult for states to satisfy all the criteria public health professionals maintain we must meet to begin a “safe” reopening. “If that happens,” he asks, “do we prolong the economic shutdown for six months or longer?”

If Gov. Sisolak would keep the state on ice for that long, he should let Nevadans in on his reasoning. If not, he is at least acknowledging that we must be prepared to make difficult choices and to tolerate a level of risk as part of the long and difficult process of reviving various sectors of the economy.

Gov. Sisolak’s faith in the “science” is heartening, but, in truth, there isn’t much “science” on the ramifications — human and economic — of this massive social experiment we are all enduring.