Biden Covid Advisor Says Another U.S. Lockdown Of 4 To 6 Weeks Could Control Pandemic And Revive The Economy
On Wednesday, Dr. Michael Osterholm, an influential COVID-19 advisor to President-elect Joe Biden, called for a four- to six-week nationwide lockdown to help drive down infection numbers. Osterholm said another national lockdown would bring down the number of new cases, “like they did in New Zealand and Australia” and believes the move will help revive the economy.
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While speaking with Yahoo Finance on Wednesday, Osterholm, who’s part of Biden’s 13-person COVID-19 advisory panel, told the news site that the US had a “big pool of money” to help pay for people’s lost wages and get the economy back on track during a lockdown while a vaccine was being rolled out.
“We could pay for a package right now to cover all of the wages, lost wages for individual workers, for losses to small companies, to medium-sized companies or city, state, county governments. We could do all of that,” he said. “If we did that, then we could lockdown for four to six weeks.” He added:
“We could really watch ourselves cruising into the vaccine availability in the first and second quarter of next year while bringing back the economy long before that.”
The US has recorded an average of more than 112,000 daily cases over the last seven days. Last Friday, cases reached an all-time peak of more than 132,000. According to a new report from Pantheon Macroeconomics released Wednesday, the US could see 1 million daily coronavirus cases by the end of 2020.
In response to the spikes, several states including Wisconsin, Nevada, and New York, have imposed new restrictions. NY Mayor Bill de Blasio warned Wednesday that the city was on its “last chance” to stop a second wave, and said that bars, restaurants, and gyms must close by 10 p.m.
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