Watch Scott Jennings Slap Down This Shoddy Talking Point About the Spending Bill
Merry Christmas, And Democrats Can Go To Hell
A Quick Bible Study Vol. 247: Advent and Christmas Reflection - Seven Lessons
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, and Ransom Captive Israel
Why Christmas Remains the Greatest Story of All Time
Why the American Healthcare System Has Been Broken for Years
Christmas: Ties to the Past and Hope for the Future
Trump Should Broker Israeli-Turkish Rapprochement for Peace in Middle East
America Must Dominate in Crypto
Biden Was Too 'Mentally Fatigued' to Take Call From Top Committee Chair Before...
Who Is Going to Replace JD Vance In the Senate?
'I Have a Confession': CNN Host Makes Long-Overdue Apology
There Are New Details on the Alleged Suspect in Trump Assassination
Doing Some Last Minute Christmas Shopping? Make Sure to Avoid Woke Companies.
Biden Signs Stopgap Bill Into Law Just Hours Before Looming Gov’t Shutdown Deadline
Tipsheet

Biden COVID-19 Adviser: Bring On the Lockdowns

AP Photo/Lynne Sladky

A member of Joe Biden’s coronavirus task force on Wednesday embraced the idea of more lockdowns as a way to manage the pandemic after saying earlier in the week that the U.S. is "about to enter COVID hell.”

Advertisement

Dr. Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center of Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said a four-to-six week lockdown could be necessary.

“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 lock down for four to six weeks.”

In an op-ed he co-authored in August, Osterholm argued the springtime lockdown was problematic because it wasn’t strict enough.

“The problem with the March-to-May lockdown was that it was not uniformly stringent across the country. For example, Minnesota deemed 78 percent of its workers essential,” he and Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari wrote in The New York Times. “To be effective, the lockdown has to be as comprehensive and strict as possible.”

On Wednesday, he highlighted New Zealand and Australia as models.

“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,” he added.

Advertisement

Another Biden coronavirus task force member believes, however, in a “Fair Priority Model" over "vaccine nationalism," meaning that any U.S.-developed vaccine would start being distributed internationally before all Americans received one. 

“Reasonable national partiality does not permit retaining more vaccine than the amount needed to keep the rate of transmission (Rt) below 1, when that vaccine could instead mitigate substantial COVID-19–related harms in other countries that have been unable to keep Rt below 1 through ongoing public-health efforts," Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel co-wrote in an article titled "An ethical framework for global vaccine allocation."

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Recommended

Trending on Townhall Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement