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President-elect Joe Biden’s coronavirus task force co-chair, former surgeon general Dr Vivek Murthy, described the lockdowns on Sunday as “a measure of last resort,” countering last week’s comments from a another member of the working group.
“It is a measure of last resort,” Murthy said on “Fox News Sunday”. “The way we think about lockdowns, I think, is different now than it was in the spring. In the spring, when we didn’t know much about COVID, we responded in a way with an on-switch. stop … stop things because we didn’t know exactly how it was spreading and where it was spreading.
“We’ve learned a lot more since then which tells us the best way to think about safety restrictions is more of a dial that we go up and down based on gravity.
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“We have to approach this with the precision of a scalpel, rather than the blunt force of an ax,” he added.
While the vaccine news from Pfizer offers a “silver lining,” people have yet to follow public health measures and take care of themselves and communities in the meantime, an expert said. (iStock)
Murthy’s comments come after Dr Michael Osterholm, another adviser to Biden, pitched the idea of another four to six week nationwide lockdown if COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the county, as they have been doing it in the last few weeks.
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Osterholm has since backed the proposal, saying he has yet to speak to the new administration.
“We are in … the most dangerous public health period since 1918,” he told “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “If we don’t take important steps like stop exchanging air with our neighbors, friends, coworkers, we’ll see [coronavirus case] the numbers are increasing dramatically. “
“My biggest fear is what we’ve seen happen in other countries, where people are dying on the streets,” Osterholm continued. “It will start to happen, the media will start talking about it and we will see the breadth and depth of this tragedy.”
Murthy also discussed the award of the coronavrus vaccine as the nation’s hopes turn to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
President-elect Joe Biden speaks at the Queen Theater, Tuesday, November 10, 2020, in Wilmington, Del.
((AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster))
“The campaign we’re going to have to mount to immunize enough people to create herd immunity in America will, I believe, be the most ambitious vaccination campaign in our country’s history, and to do that, the people have to believe this vaccine is safe and effective, ”Murthy said. “Unfortunately, we know from recent polls that a significant number of people are concerned that the process of developing the vaccine and proving that it has been politicized, it is now incumbent on us to be as transparent as possible.”
Biden has campaigned as a more responsible steward of U.S. public health than President Trump and has been outspoken about the challenges facing the country, warning of a “dark winter” as cases soar.
But talking about locking is particularly sensitive. On the one hand, they are nearly impossible for a president to pass alone, requiring bipartisan support from state and local authorities. But more broadly, it’s a political flashpoint that could undermine Biden’s efforts to unify a deeply divided country.
“It would create a backlash,” said Dr Amesh Adalja, a senior researcher at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, who added that such a move could make matters worse if people do not adhere to the restrictions. “Lockdowns can have consequences that diminish the value of such an approach.”
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Madeline Farber of Fox News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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