Dem Sen. Murphy: ‘States Need to Start Reopening,’ But I’m ‘Nervous’ About Lack of Pandemic Control Systems

On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “All In,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said that states “need to start reopening,” but it is “a really dangerous moment.” And he is “incredibly nervous that we don’t have a president who seems to understand or care about what his role is, and what the federal government’s role is now to make sure that this doesn’t very quickly boomerang back in the wrong direction.”

Murphy began by stating that reopenings pose the risk of “throwing lambs to the wolves.” Because people who couldn’t catch the virus during the lockdowns will now be able to.

He continued, “What is so maddening is that this administration could have used this time to work with states to invest in the kind of systems that can jump on outbreaks when they start, and they are going to inevitably start to pop up all around the country. And we know exactly how to control them. But instead of helping us build those systems, these testing, tracing, and quarantine systems, the administration has sort of sat back and essentially prevented the CDC from working with us in any meaningful way and stood in the way of efforts to try to fund those systems. So, it’s a really dangerous moment. I think states need to start reopening, but it makes me incredibly nervous that we don’t have a president who seems to understand or care about what his role is, and what the federal government’s role is now to make sure that this doesn’t very quickly boomerang back in the wrong direction.”

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