Michigan small-business owner goes viral for rant against lockdown: 'It's gotten extremely difficult'

A video of a Michigan restaurant owner went viral Thursday after he interrupted a news reporter on live television to express his frustration with the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services on Nov. 15 issued an emergency order halting all indoor social gatherings for three weeks in an effort to reduce the spiking COVID-19 cases in the state.

"There are 3,000 businesses in Michigan that are closed right now, and they're falling daily," Dave Morris, owner of D&R's Daily Grind Cafe, told Fox News. "The fact that my government had enough money to work with. ... You take $4 trillion and divide it among 100 million households, roughly ... they could have given every household in this country $20,000 to sit down. Go home and sit."

He applied for a Payment Protection Program (PPP) loan the first day it was available. The next day, his bank informed him that the funds were depleted. He and his wife have received a total of $2,400 since March.

"They keep turning the screw to my little cafe here. I'm all about shutting everything down and controlling the virus, but I'm not about shutting down just a small segment of society based on opinions...and not have any money," he said.

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D&R's Daily Grind Cafe, which is open for breakfast and lunch from 7 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. seven days a week, closed in the spring and reopened at half-capacity in June through the fall, which Morris said worked well for a few months, but when college kids went back to school, "everything exploded." Neither he nor his wife or children have contracted COVID-19, he said.

"Manufacturing, airplanes, train stations, department stores, sports stores -- they're spreading it at a much quicker pace than I am," Morris said. "I just don't see it here. We're doing everything we can to try and sanitize and survive."

Morris reopened his restaurant indoor dining on Tuesday against state orders, and other local restaurants have done the same. People have "come out of the woodwork" to support him, he said. Businesses that defy state rules may be subject to liquor license suspensions and citations, according to the MDHHS. 

"We've got a small cafe here. I only see 40 people. It's just me and my wife and my daughter and we've maintained this for 12 years. I paid it off two years ago, but I have fixed costs, and as this summer went on, it's just gotten extremely difficult."

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U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney on Wednesday ruled against Michigan restaurants and bars when he blocked their attempts to issue a temporary restraining order against the MDHH's ban on indoor dining, saying the order is unfair to some businesses.

Maloney cited the fact that diners cannot wear masks while eating and tend to linger more at indoor restaurants than they do at other indoor dining businesses -- such as those at airports -- as a "plausible explanation" for the MDHH's order.

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"We are happy that today’s ruling keeps in place measures that will save lives by limiting specific indoor gatherings that greatly increase the risk of COVID-19 spread," MDHH Director Robert Gordon said in a Wednesday statement. "The science is settled: public health experts from around the nation and world say these types of actions must be taken to prevent the health care system from being overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases. "

Gordon added that "protocols on specific indoor gatherings, along with wearing face masks, social distancing and frequent handwashing, give Michigan a fact-based approach to slow the spread of COVID-19 so we can return to a strong economy and get back to normal safely as soon as we can."

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