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Governor:

Were it not for the leadership in the state and our counties issuing Safer-at-Home orders and social distancing measures, I think most would agree there would be far more COVID-19 active cases. Now we need to move to the next phase, which is the economic recovery, and as a candidate for Senate District 19, I wanted to offer a few suggestions.

I disagree with blanket policies.  In general, there needs to be different policies based upon the situation because plenty of jobs pose extremely low risk.  For example, a small business with only one employee (the owner) should be allowed to return to work.  Companies where there is no interaction with the public/customers or limited interaction with the public/customers and other employees should also be allowed to return to work. A 100,000 sq. ft warehouse with 2-5 employees should be at low risk especially if they don’t share the same lunch hour.  To shut down everything with a blanket policy is too constraining.

Because the access to COVID-19 tests is still chaotic, I suggest a proper experiment in 4-5 different counties or areas that can re-open for a period of 10 days.  Then shut down again for 14-20 days and observe a draft report on the number of cases (if any) of virus outbreak.  It could be for example, that Santa Barbara County has a few workers who returned to work get the virus or perhaps no workers get the virus.  Or there is no virus outbreak increase when the report is published 30 days from the beginning of the experiment.  Once the experiment concludes then and only then can accurate policies be made. Everything else is entirely guess work and no one really knows because there is no controlled data.

I would appreciate your consideration of my suggestions as you reopen the economy under a local order developed in concurrence with each county’s public health offices, which will continue to protect the health and safety of our residents.  Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Gary Michaels

Candidate for Senate District 19