Opposing view: Experts can be wrong. We can safely reopen.
The unprecedented lockdown of American society was executed with one primary goal in mind: preventing our hospitals and medical professionals from being overwhelmed by the new coronavirus.
Two months later, it remains doubtful whether it was truly necessary to force businesses to close their doors or to order citizens to stay in their homes for weeks on end.
Many of the models used to justify these measures have proved to be flat out wrong. Experts who put forward the worst doomsday projections have been wildly off the mark — most notably, the British epidemiologist and leading lockdown proponent Neil Ferguson, who claimed 2.2 million Americans would die unless the strictest measures were put in place.
Ferguson has since downplayed his model but remained a loud supporter of the restrictions until being busted violating his beloved shelter-in-place order to visit his mistress. Even the most prominent and often cited model from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) has been repeatedly and dramatically revised.
Whether it was justified or not, the objective has been accomplished. Throughout most of America, our hospital systems are no longer in danger of being flooded by coronavirus patients. My home state of Georgia now has the lowest number of patients hospitalized and the lowest number of ventilators in use since April 8. Even in hard-hit New York City, which has over 185,000 cases alone, 26% of hospital beds and 21% of intensive care units are open. Our hospital systems have the capacity necessary to deal with the coronavirus.
We can safely reopen the country and allow folks to return to work while continuing to practice smart health guidelines. Every day that we delay makes it more difficult to restore the economic prosperity we enjoyed just three months ago.
Over 33 million hardworking Americans have filed for unemployment since mid-March. Americans and their employers are facing a tremendous difficulty. We cannot afford to wait. The sooner we begin taking steps on the road to recovery, the more prosperous the path will be for us all.