Joe Biden said he will follow “the scientists” on whether to lock down the country a second time. Based on Biden’s COVID advisory task force appointments, that harsh approach looks increasingly likely in the new administration.
Ezekiel Emanuel previously called for another lockdown. Now, a second panel member seconds that proposal. From the CNBC story:
Shutting down businesses and paying people for lost wages for four to six weeks could help keep the coronavirus pandemic in check and get the economy on track until a vaccine is approved and distributed, said Dr. Michael Osterholm, a coronavirus advisor to President-elect Joe Biden.
Osterholm, who serves as director of the Center of Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said earlier this week that the country is headed toward “Covid hell.” Cases are rising as more people grow tired of wearing masks and social distancing, suffering from so-called “pandemic fatigue,” he said Wednesday. Colder weather is also driving people indoors where the virus can spread more easily.
A nationwide lockdown would drive the number of new cases and hospitalizations down to manageable levels while the world awaits a vaccine, he told Yahoo Finance on Wednesday.
What if it doesn’t? It didn’t last time. Europe’s draconian lockdowns haven’t worked.
Lock the country down again, and the partial recovery the economy has produced in the past few months will collapse, dashing the hopes and dreams of millions of Americans. Even if the government pays employees and business owners lost wages or profits, as Osterholm proposes, that won’t do more than put a thin bandage on the gaping wound a lockdown will tear into the fabric of society. And in the “cure,” we will witness increased suicides, abuse, addiction, social isolation, and other assorted evils.
Frankly, I don’t think the country will stand for it. Hell no, we won’t go.