During an interview aired on Friday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “WSJ at Large,” Biden COVID-19 Advisory Board member Dr. Celine Gounder said that the advisory board’s consensus “is that we do not need the draconian lockdowns, shutdowns that we had in the spring, that we have learned enough over the last several months to be much more targeted about how we tighten up some of our measures.”
Gounder said, “[W]e’re not going to agree all the time, but the consensus of the advisory board is that we do not need the draconian lockdowns, shutdowns that we had in the spring, that we have learned enough over the last several months to be much more targeted about how we tighten up some of our measures. I think of it like a dimmer switch, whereas before we had an on and off light switch. So, we can dial up and dial down in a much more granular fashion. So, some of the places that we know are big contributors to transmission are indoor restaurants, bars, gyms, and also private social gatherings of friends and family in the home. So, those are really the places we need to target for closures while keeping other services, for example, schools that are — have not been major contributors to transmission, they’re not zero-risk, but they are much lower risk, and they’re an essential service. And so, we’re really prioritizing keeping schools, for example, open.”
Host Gerry Baker asked, “If we did see an acceleration, CDC is talking about 280,000 deaths, that’s another 40,000 deaths or so in the next few weeks, and we’re coming into winter, more people indoors, the risks are obviously greater, if things really did spiral like that, could you see the case for a wider lockdown?”
Gounder responded, “I think this is where we each need to take some personal responsibility here. Each and every one of us needs to mask up, socially distance, when we’re around other people, really try to emphasize doing that outdoors, get tested, and if a contact tracer calls you up, work with them. Because it’s really that kind of information of understanding who’s getting infected, in what settings, and why is it spreading, that is the information we need to control this. So, this is really in everyone’s power to prevent a shutdown if they take those measures.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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