Biden Adviser Hints At A 4-6 Week Long Nationwide COVID-19 Lockdown

A possible threat to already battered businesses is quite likely with the Biden administration, whose aim is to take down the coronavirus with a set of precision strikes, one of which might be over a month-long nationwide lockdown.

As per President-elect Joe Biden’s coronavirus adviser Michael Osterholm, a nationwide coronavirus lockdown is quite likely in the foreseeable future as new cases climb once again, and states including NYC pull in more restrictions.

In an interview with Yahoo Finance, Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota expert on infectious diseases said that a four- to six-week lockdown could both control the virus’ spread and benefit the economy. “We could pay for a package right now to cover all of the wages, lost wages, for individual workers,” he said, adding that federal borrowing could bail out small- and medium-sized companies, cities, states and county governments, which considering the overall scenario would not be quite feasible.

Source: CNBC.com

“If we did that, then we could lockdown for four to six weeks, and if we did that, we could drive the numbers down,” he said. “Like they’ve done in Asia. Like they did in New Zealand and Australia.”

He claimed that although the possibility of the vaccine arriving early next year might after all be true, people have gone lax in following rules and restrictions now that they’ve been going through the same routine since the past year. He warned that with the upcoming holiday season, Americans could start gathering more in indoor spaces, where the virus spreads more easily, as the weather grows cooler- all due to “pandemic fatigue”.

He further stated that now more than ever, it is crucial for State machinery to ensure the strict enforcement of not just restrictions but also social distancing measures. Osterholm also claimed in a radio interview this week that America was set to enter a devastating second wave, saying, “When we were at 32,000 cases a day in the United States, people thought that maybe things were going to start going away,” he told Minnesota Public Radio Monday. “As you saw, we’re now at 125,000 cases per day. We’re seeing hospitals right now completely overwhelmed in a number of states.”