The Only Way To Save NY: End the COVID Lockdown
THE ISSUE: The debate over whether to reopen New York in the face of job losses and a declining economy.
New York needs to open up (“Lockdown Insanity,” Betsy McCaughey, Post-Opinion, May 9).
This does not mean everyone should go out at once, but we should assume people can manage their own risks. Even if the lockdown is lifted, I’m pretty sure my elderly mom isn’t leaving her apartment to go to the theater any time soon.
New York City’s economy is based on crowds: Broadway, clubs, bars, restaurants and tourism. The longer we outlaw business and make assembly impossible, the longer a recovery will take.
M.B. White, Queens
Kudos to McCaughey for her most recent commentary. It’s insane when liberal fearmongers seem to want a cure that’s worse than the disease.
As this lockdown continues on with no end in sight, business owners have started filing lawsuits and protesters have taken to the streets. We are seeing job-loss numbers that are entering Great Depression territory. We took a healthy economy and sent it down the toilet.
Gov. Cuomo has stated the current lockdown of the economy “is not a sustainable situation.” It is time to open up America and get people back to work.
Salvator Giarratani
Boston, Mass.
As an 80-year-old New Yorker, I’m part of a vulnerable demographic for COVID-19 illness. But I support John Podhoretz’s plea to end the lockdown (“Our Lockdown Stasis,” Post-Opinion, May 8). This is economic homicide that destroys jobs, lives and communities without preventing death.
Gov. Cuomo cited a survey showing that 66 percent of people hospitalized for COVID were admitted from their homes. This proves social distancing doesn’t stop the virus, neither does wearing a mask nor NYPD cops acting like the morality police. Richard Reif Queens
McCaughey captures our thinking. We must not “kill” our small businesses and our communities by keeping them closed one second longer than we need to.
If we give our small businesses and neighborhoods a lifeline by starting a reopening process, they could thrive and lead the city to recovery, and it would prevent us from ending up with blocks of closed retail, our community gone. Howard Teich
Manhattan