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- Dr Michael Osterholm, coronavirus adviser to President-elect Joe Biden, said a nationwide lockdown would help bring the virus under control in the United States.
- He said the government could borrow enough money to pay for a program that would cover loss of income for individuals and governments during a shutdown.
- “We could really watch ourselves explore vaccine availability in the first and second quarters of next year while bringing the economy back long before that,” he said.
Shutting down businesses and paying people for lost wages for four to six weeks could help control the coronavirus pandemic and get the economy back on track until a vaccine is approved and distributed, said the Dr Michael Osterholm, coronavirus advisor to President-elect Joe Biden.
Osterholm, who is director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said earlier this week that the country was heading into “COVID hell.” Cases are escalating as more people tire of wearing masks and social distancing, suffering from so-called “pandemic fatigue,” he said on Wednesday. Colder weather also pushes people indoors, where the virus can spread more easily.
A nationwide lockdown would bring the number of new cases and hospitalizations to manageable levels as the world waits for a vaccine, he told Yahoo Finance on Wednesday.
“We could pay a lump sum right now covering all wages, lost wages for individual workers for losses suffered by small businesses to medium-sized businesses or to city, state and county governments. We could do all of that, ”he said. “If we did that, then we could lock in for four to six weeks.”
He referenced an August editorial he wrote with Minneapolis Federal Reserve Chairman Neel Kashkari in which the two argued for more restrictive and uniform lockdowns across the country.
“The problem with the March-May lockdown was that it was not uniformly strict across the country. For example, Minnesota judged 78% of its workers to be essential, ”they wrote in The New York Times. “To be effective, the lockdown must be as complete and strict as possible.”
On Wednesday, Osterholm said such a lockdown would help the country bring the virus under control, “as they have done in New Zealand and Australia.” Epidemiologists have repeatedly cited New Zealand, Australia and other parts of Asia which have reduced the number of new cases daily to less than 10 as an example of how to contain the virus.
“We could really watch ourselves explore vaccine availability in the first and second quarters of next year while bringing the economy back long before that,” he said Wednesday.
On the current trajectory, Osterholm said the United States is heading for dark days before a vaccine becomes available. He said health care systems across the country are already overwhelmed in places like El Paso, Texas, where local authorities have already closed businesses and the federal government is sending resources to deal with an increase in deaths caused. by COVID-19.
Osterholm said the country needs leadership. The president-elect is up to the task of providing that leadership, Osterholm said, adding that it could also come from local and state officials or those in the medical community. He referred to the fireside conversations aired on the radio during the terms of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt, through which Roosevelt addressed the country on issues ranging from the Great Depression to WWII. .
“People don’t want to hear that El Paso is not an isolated event. El Paso, in many cases, will become the norm,” he said. “I think the message is how to get through this. We need FDR moments right now. We need fireside chats. We need someone to tell America,” that’s what’s going to happen. “”
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