The COVID-19 advisor of President-elect Joe Biden proposes to put businesses and other establishments into a total shut down of four to six weeks to prevent the country from entering the “Covid hell.”
Dr. Michael Osterholm is one of the public health experts that Joe Biden has appointed into its advisory panel for Coronavirus response. In a statement, Joe Biden said that the advisory board would help shape his approach to managing the surge of reported coronavirus cases.
One of Biden’s Covid task force members, Dr. Michael Osterholm (@mtosterholm) pitches a national lockdown, falsely claims we’d be following Japan’s lead.
“We need to lock down to drive this infection level to a place where we can actually control it.” pic.twitter.com/MOoKyQUylf
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) November 10, 2020
Last Wednesday, the appointed Coronavirus advisor stated that a total national lockdown is the best way to keep deaths and hospitalization across the country until a coronavirus vaccine is distributed. He believes that a more stringent nationwide lockdown with uniform restrictions in each state is needed to fight the virus.
This advice comes after coronavirus infections and hospitalizations hit a single-day high in the country, although the number of deaths was still half what they were back in the peak of it in April.
Moreover, Osterholm also told Yahoo News that the coronavirus cases are rising because more people are being forced to go indoors due to the cold weather. As a result, the virus spreads more easily. He further stated that people tend to experience “pandemic fatigue” and grow tired of social distancing and wearing masks.
Osterholm further claimed that the US economy would not suffer if there is enough money borrowed to pay for the wages during these weeks of lockdown.
He was quoted saying, “We could pay for a package right now to cover all of the wages, lost wages for individual workers for losses to small companies to medium-sized companies or city, state, county governments. We could do all of that,”
"We could pay for a package right now to cover all of the wages, lost wages for individual workers … If we did that, then we could lockdown for four-to-six weeks," Dr. Michael Osterholm said. https://t.co/A5UzZNHCgt
— NBCWashington (@nbcwashington) November 12, 2020
He said if the Biden administration does that, then it will be possible to implement the four to six weeks of lockdown.
The coronavirus advisor also pointed out the problem with the March-to-May lockdown, saying that it was not uniformly applied all across the country. For instance, he said, in Minnesota, they deem 78% of its workers as essential.
“To be effective, the lockdown has to be as comprehensive and strict as possible,” he said.
In his statement last Wednesday, Osterholm also suggested that the four to six weeks of total lockdown will bring the country in line with countries like Australia and New Zealand, where the daily new cases were incredibly reduced to under ten cases a day.
He said if this kind of measure is not taken, there will be “worse days ahead” for the country.
The appointed coronavirus chief advisor had already given a speech to places like El Paso, Texas, where some officials had already taken extreme measures of closing businesses because the healthcare system was becoming more overwhelmed.
Osterholm added, “El Paso, in many instances, will become the norm.” He touted Biden as the person who will explain this to the American people.
“I think that the message is how do we get through this. We need FDR moments right now… We need somebody to tell America, “this is what in the hell is going to happen,” he said.
Osterholm also warned that the number of coronavirus cases could climb in the next two to three months. As of Thursday morning, there is a total number of 10,708,630 recorded cases in the US.
President-elect Joe Biden also talked about the need for coronavirus response before a vaccine is distributed. He said last Monday, “It’s clear that this vaccine, even if approved, will not be widely available for many months yet to come. The challenge before us right now is still immense and growing.”
In relation to this, President-elect Joe Biden had also consistently claimed that he would not hesitate to impose a total lockdown to curb the coronavirus cases.
