LETTER: No government handout can clean up the economic mess in Las Vegas

If the coronavirus doesn’t kill you, the nanny state response probably will. Perhaps you are a family member or employee of one of the hundreds of thousands of small businesses across the country now on the verge of bankruptcy because of the government recommended or enforced shutdowns. Sure, government employees will get their paychecks, but not your business.

If Walmart, Smith’s and Albertson’s are open, the virus will continue to spread. Or should they also be closed so we can have food riots? Closing schools? Who will provide child care for the parents if they still have a job and must go to work? Or is this just unavoidable germ war collateral damage?

Containing this COVID-19 virus to protect our national health is the ceaseless mantra heard on TV and radio. But no one is mentioning our important mental health. Kill a family business that took 20 years to create and that will cause PTSD for many. Homelessness? It is going to explode. Suicides? Going way up. These will be the serious, long-term effects of these quarantines.

The shutdowns on the Strip and throughout Las Vegas will destroy Nevada’s economic health. No government program, such as SBA loans, can prevent this total destruction of society.

Sneezing and kissing spread the virus. Avoid crowds, they say. But the most common germ- and virus-contaminated thing we all touch every day is money. Until money is eliminated, the virus will spread. That is not going to happen, so just let the hospitals do their job. Gov. Steve Sisolak should stop this quarantine that is destroying our great state of Nevada.