Government Overreach or Public Health: A look at the cost of doing business

WASHINGTON (SBG) — After staying closed for weeks, the owner of Siren Salon Studio in Monterey, California, violated statewide orders and re-opened her doors.

"This is how I pay my bills. For them to dictate who is and who is not essential just doesn't sit well with me," Jodi Petersen told KION-TV.

And she’s not alone. From protests to new polling from ScottRasmussen.com, showing 49% OF Americans fear the economic threat more than the health threat from the Coronavirus.

"I think we’re going to see a tipping point or maybe we already have where people say enough is enough,and we’re not going to put up with it anymore," Rasmussen said in an interview Wednesday.

Some law enforcement officers say they won’t enforce the stay at home orders.

"I’m not calling for open defiance. What I’m calling for is – I want people to be treated equally by the government," said Sheriff Adam Fortney, from the Snohomish County Sheriff’s office in Washington state.

Buta viral video of a house party in Chicago recently prompted a threat from Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

“We will shut you down. We will cite you. We will arrest you and if we need to we will take you to jail," Lightfoot said on WGN News.

In Great Britain, officials are contemplating a different approach. Obese people may be told to work from home.

The balance of what’s next here in the United States is becoming, so delicate, even a top economic adviser for the Trump campaign told Sinclair there could be another shutdown.

"It is possible that we could come up with a situation where we saw deaths reach a point where we felt we had to shut things down again,"Andy Puzder said in an interview Wednesday.

It’s why many public health officials are urging restraint when it comes to opening this time around. Some even reminding Americans they’ve been abiding by government health regulations for decades. These include following seat belt laws and designated smoking areas with the same goal: protecting others.

"So we always have public health regulations that balance individual responsibility of public health of the common good we really need that," said Professor Johnathan Metzl, Director of Vanderbilt University’s Center for Medicine, Health, and Society, in an interview Wednesday.

"More people are going to die because people are violating these social distancing orders. I think that’s a fact at this point," he warned.