Rolling back re-openings as COVID spread picks up steam

As San Diego teeters on the brink of having to place more restrictions on businesses and activities, a discussion is taking place about whether a broad, nationwide shutdown can be avoided.

The topic was broached by none other than Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

“We want to use public health measures not to get in the way of opening the economy, but to being a safe gateway to opening the economy,” Fauci said on CBS’ “60 Minutes” last Sunday.

He suggested it shouldn’t be an either/or proposition: open up the economy or lock it down.

“No, put shut down away and say ‘we’re going to use public health measures to help us safely get to where we want to go.’”

His comments came as much of the country is experiencing increases in COVID-19 cases and deaths.

Overall, California so far appears to have avoided the kind of resurgence seen elsewhere, though success in tamping down the spread has been uneven. A few counties recently improved their status, with San Francisco moving up to the state’s least-restrictive “yellow” COVID tier. Riverside and Shasta counties fell out of the state’s secondworst “red” level to the bottom “purple” tier.

San Diego County remains in red but is on the brink of going purple, which could force some businesses and faith-based organizations to again operate outdoors only.

Clearly, there’s a lot of odd juxtapositions in what’s happening at the national, state and local level regarding the COVID-19 outbreak and the policies and politics surrounding it.

Fauci’s interview coincided with renewed debate over whether a more targeted approach to dealing with the pandemic is a better way to go than the familiar lockdown mode. Some of that discussion was generated by the hotly disputed Great Barrington Declaration, a pact backed by thousands of experts urging protections focused on the most vulnerable people as healthy people move on with their lives while adhering to SEE SMOLENS • B12