Calling 49-year-old Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetit’s policy for the coronavirus AKA SARS CoV-2 or Covid-19 a “death wish,” 73-year-old President Donald Trump reacted to Garcetti’s suggestion that Southern California could keep the “safer at home” order until August. “That’s a death wish,” paraphrasing the late Charles Bronson’s movies series “Death Wish,” to keep the region shuttered, causing lasting damage to one of the nation’s most important economic regions. Garcetti already announced furloughs for Los Angeles employees, as the City ran out of cash. Together with Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom, there’s a colossal disconnect between Los Angeles and Sacramento when it comes to opening up the State’s economy. Garcetti and Newsom know that Los Angeles and the State of California have run out of money, all to somehow slow the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

Whether admitted to or not by Newsom and Garcetti, there’s no evidence at this stage of the SARS CoV-2 epidemic that “shelter in place” prevents the spread of the virus. When New York Gov. Mario Cuomo admitted May 6 that 66% of New York’s hospitalizations sheltered in place prior to hospitalizations, it threw cold water on the necessity of shelter in place orders. Stanford University Hoover Institution fellow Dr. Scott W. Atlas said “shelter in place” orders are actually spreading the virus more. Yet Newsom and Garcetti act like they’re containing the disease while, at the same time, sending California and Los Angeles into economic ruin. When Garcetti said he could see “safer at home” orders until August, businesses gasped, knowing that many of the City and State’s businesses would never come back. Los Angeles County’s chief Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer shocked residents last week.

Ferrer, who’s not an MD, holds a Ph.D. in Social Welfare from Brandeis University, should not be issuing County-wide proclamations about “shelter in place” or anything else related to epidemiology or managing an infections disease crisis. Ferrer told the Los Angeles Board of Supervisers May 12 that the County’s “stay at home” order “with all certainty” due to expire May 15 could be extended to August. Ferrer, who collects a $330,000 County paycheck, should be less cavalier about the multitude of Los Angeles County businesses that are dying on the vine. When Ferrer talks about extending the “stay at home” order until August, the business community groaned. “Our hope is that by using the data, we’d be cable to slowly lift the restrictions over the next three months,” Ferrer told the Supervisors, knowing the financial desperation faced by the City and County under the shutdown.

Tenured City, County and State employees, like Ferrer, don’t have a clue what’s happening to the rest of Los Angeles or State residents told they can’t work. Ferrer says nothing about the fact that mass merchandisers like Costco, Target, Home Depot, Wallmart, etc have been open through the SARS CoV-epidemic without anyone questioning whether it’s spreading the virus. Supermarkets have also remained open, whether or not they insist on masks, throughout the crisis. Yet small businesses owners have been told the “shelter in place,” “stay at home,” unable to earn a living. Los Angeles County businesses were outraged by Ferrer’s comments about “stay at home” orders continued to August. If Gov. Gavin Newsom, Mayor Erice Garcetti or Ferrer stopped getting paychecks, they’d feel the pain like everyone else. Yet it’s easy for government bureaucrats all to cite “science.”

When Trump says Los Angeles has a “death wish,” he talking about the collateral damage created by keeping the economy shut down. Newsom knows his “science” advisers have broken the State’s budget in the name of saving lives. Newsom allowed his “science” advisers to eclipse all common sense and judgment about how long he could keep the state’s economy shut down. Left a $21 billion Rainy Day Fund by 82-year-old former Gov. Jerry Brown, Newsom now leaves the State with a $56 billion, begging Washington for a bail out. Newsom actually asked Congress for California, Oregon and Washington State for a whopping $1 trillion in debt relief. When it comes to the State’s financial crisis, it wasn’t caused by the SARS CoV-2 epidemic, it was caused by Newsom’s abysmal mismanagement. Newsom repeats daily he follows “science,” when he knows nothing about it.

Newsom and Garcetti have a lot of explaining to do when infectious disease experts like Stanford’s Hoover Institution’s fellow for Public Health Care Policy Dr. Scott Atlas, M.D., confirms the days for “shelter in place” are long gone in California. With the State, City and County of Los Angeles out of cash, it’s cosmic nerve on the part of County Health Director Barbara Ferrer to tell the Board of Supervisors that the “stay at home” order might have to last until August. Ferrer, as County Health Director, is not an epidemiologist nor infectious disease specialist, holding her degree from Brandeis University in Social Welfare. Instead of counting new cases and deaths in Los Angeles or surrounding counties, State, County and City officials should look at their budgets to decide what to do next. If Newsom, Garcetti and Ferrer lost their paychecks, they’d figure it out very quickly.