Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman, who is pushing for casinos and other businesses to be allowed to reopen, says she wants the city to be a “control group” for relaxing shutdowns. The workers who would actually be affected say they want to go back to safe workplaces—and they don’t want to be part of an experiment. “We’re not test subjects. We’re people. We are employees,” bartender Alexander Acosta tells NBC News. “We try to live every day as we can. We shouldn’t be test subjects.” Goodman is facing a major backlash over the “control group” remark and other comments she made in a CNN interview with Anderson Cooper Wednesday. The 81-year-old mayor has previously called lockdown measures “total insanity.” More:

• “Control group.” Goodman told Anderson that she had volunteered the city to be a “control group” for social distancing but statisticians told her it wouldn’t work because people commute to the city from across southern Nevada. “And I said, ‘Oh, that’s too bad because when you have a disease you have a placebo that gets the water and the sugar and those that actually get the shot,'” the mayor said. “We would love to be that placebo side so you have something to measure against.”