"I would shut it down," Biden had told ABC in August, adding "I would listen to the scientists." Dr. Michael Osterholm, one of his coronavirus advisers, said last week that a 4-6 week lockdown "could drive the numbers down."

Appearing at a brief press conference on Thursday, however, Biden berated reporters for continuing to bring the issue up and said his original statement was a "hypothetical."

Nevertheless, he refused to budge on the decision to close schools, even as outraged parents pointed to bars, restaurants, and gyms as the source of the spread. That reaction likely contributed to de Blasio's threat to close those venues too. Bars, restaurants that serve alcohol, and gyms have already been slapped with a 10pm curfew.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of businesses in New York have closed, thanks to months of economic shutdowns. By May, 100,000 of the state's small businesses had closed permanently, and the number has no doubt skyrocketed since then. The problem is nationwide - 60 percent of all businesses listed on review site Yelp that closed for the pandemic had shut their doors permanently by September, while 7.5 million were already deemed at risk of going under for good in April.

"To get the virus under control, we need to pay people to stay home," tweeted Ocasio-Cortez, also known by her initials AOC, on Thursday.

"Are you suggesting you want to pay people to stay home from the money you take by defunding the police?" replied Nikki Haley, former Republican governor of South Carolina and the Trump administration's first US envoy to the UN. "Or was that for the student debts you wanted to pay off, the Green New Deal or Medicare for All?" Haley added, referring to AOC's other proposals.

Ocasio-Cortez quickly shot back that she wanted Republicans to "find the spine to stand up to their corporate donors" and vote for the Democrats' HEROES Act, which supposedly doesn't include a "Wall Street bailout" this time.

Republicans have criticized the HEROES Act over what they say are billions in bailouts for Democrat-run states that would reward their governors for harsh lockdowns instead of helping people and businesses financially ruined by them.

Kelly Stafford took to Instagram on Thursday with a video railing against the new lockdown order - imposed last week amid an uptick in the state's Covid-19 outbreak - arguing that small businesses "will not make it" through another round of harsh restrictions.

"I'm going to be very blunt: I'm so over it. I'm over living in a dictatorship that we call Michigan," she said. "I understand there's a pandemic, and I understand it's very scary. I'm scared of it, too. If you're at risk, do not leave your house until there's a vaccine."

Once we are able to leave our house, once this dictatorship decides to let us have some freedom, there will be nothing left.

Stafford suggested that many would disagree with her take - and she was right. Before long, the brief Instagram tirade rippled rage across the internet, with commenters lambasting the athlete's wife for "white privilege," some insisting that she, and everybody else, must "sacrifice personal freedom to get this pandemic under control."

The Orange County and Sacramento sheriff's offices issued separate statements on Thursday night saying they would not respond to calls related to compliance with the new health mandate imposed by Newsom earlier in the day.

"The Sacramento County Sheriff's Office will not be determining - including entering any home or business - compliance with, or enforcing compliance of, any health or emergency orders related to curfews, staying at home, Thanksgiving or other social gatherings inside or outside the home, maximum occupancy, or mask mandates," Sacramento Sheriff Scott Jones said in a lengthy Facebook post.

Those calling to report violations of the order would be referred to a non-emergency line and "routed" to the county health department, Jones went on, but added that "Of course, if there is potential criminal behavior or the potential for impacts to public or personal safety we will continue to respond appropriately."

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