The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Biden faces tough choice of whether to back virus lockdowns
WASHINGTON » Joe Biden faces a decision unlike any other incoming president: whether to back a short- term national lockdown to finally arrest a raging pandemic.
For now, it’s a question the president- elect would prefer to avoid. In the week since he defeated President Donald Trump, Biden has devoted most of his public remarks to encouraging Americans to wear a mask and view the coronavirus as a threat that has no regard for political ideology.
But the debate has been livelier among members of the coronavirus advisory board Biden announced this week. One member, Dr. Michael Osterholm, suggested a four- to six- week lockdown with financial aid for Americans whose livelihoods would be affected. He later walked back his remarks and was rebutted by two other members of the panel who said a wide spread lockdown shouldn’t be under consideration.
That’s a sign of the tough dynamic Biden will face try, warning of a “dark winter” as cases spike.
But talk of lockdowns are especially sensitive. For one, they’re nearly impossible for a president to enact on his own, requiring bipartisan support from state and local officials. But more broadly, they’re a political flashpoint that could undermine Biden’s efforts to unify a deeply divided country.
“It would create a backlash,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security who added that such a move could make the situation worse if people don’t comply with restrictions. “Lockdowns can have consequences that di-acknowledge Biden’s victory, would likely reinforce that message to his loyal supporters once he’s left office.
Still, the pandemic’s toll continues to escalate.
The coronavirus is blamed for 10.6 million confirmed infections and almost a quarter- million death sin the U.S ., with the closely watched University of Washington model projecting nearly 439,000 dead by March 1. Deaths have climbed to about 1,000aday on average.
New cases per day are soaring, shattering records over and over and reaching an all-time high on thursday of over 153,000.
Several states are beginning to bring back some of the restrictions first imposed during the spring. But leaders in much of the country n are proceeding with caution, aware that americans are already fatigued by virus-related disruptions.
Indeed, after Osterholm made his comments, a number of Biden’s task force members went out to pub-licly disavow lockdown possibilities. Dr. Vivek Murthy, the former u. S. surgeongeneral who’s serving as one of the co- chairs on Biden’s coronavirus advisory board, said the group is looking at a “series of restrictions that we dial up or down” based on the severity of the virus in a given region.
“We’re not in a place where we’re saying shut the whole country down. We’ve got to be more targeted,” Murthy said on ABC’S “Good Morning America.” “If we don’t do that, what you’re going to find is that peoplewill become evenmore fatigued. Schools won’t be open to children and the economy will be hit harder, so we’ve got to follow science, but we’ve also got to be more precise.”
Speaking on CNBC, Dr. Celine Grounder, an infectious- disease specialist at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and another task force member, said that, “as a group, really the consensus is that we need a more nuanced approach.”
“We can be much more targeted geographically. We can also be more targeted in terms of what we close,” she said.
During the campaign, Biden pledged to make testing free and widely available; to hire thousands of health workers to help implement contact tracing programs; and to instruct the Centers for Diseasecontrol and Prevention to provide clear, expert- informed guidelines to businesses, schools and local officials on reopening in regions where they’ve closed.
To prepare for possible surge sin cases, he’d prepare department of defense resources to provide medical facility capacity, logistical support and doctors and other medical personnel if necessary. Biden would also use the Defense Production Act to ramp up production of masks, face shields and other personal protective equipment to help alleviate shortages at hospitals.