Last updated on 2021-02-16
Dr. Michael Osterholm, really smart Minnesota epidemiologist and member of Preisdent-Elect Joe Biden’s coronavirus task force, says paying workers to stay home would make a substantial dent in our coronavirus numbers:
In a Wednesday interview with Yahoo Finance Live, Dr. Michael Osterholm, who currently serves as director of the Center of Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, stressed that the country is in a position to pay its workers to stay home.
“We could pay for a package right now to cover all of the 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 and if we did that, we could drive the numbers down” [Zack Guzman, “Biden Coronavirus Task Force Doctor Says 4 to 6 Week Lockdown Could Control the Pandemic,” Yahoo Finance, 2020.11.12].
This proposal is nothing new. In August, Dr. Osterholm cowrote an op-ed in the New York Times with fellow supersmart Minnesotan and Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari contending that a four- to six-week shutdown could drive the daily new coronavirus case rate below one per 100,000 population, a rate at which testing, contact tracing, case isolation, and extensive monitoring of positive tests could control the pandemic. (Back in August, South Dakota’s daily new case rate was 14.5/100K, while the national rate was 14.6; South Dakota’s new case rate yesterday was 154.5, while the U.S. rate was 43.2.)
Alas, Dr. Osterholm recognizes that even with a new President (an actual President) on the way, a national shutdown doesn’t have political wheels:
Dr. Michael Osterholm, an adviser to President-elect Joe Biden, said in a phone interview late Thursday that he has not discussed with the incoming administration his earlier proposal to lock down the country for several weeks to try to curb a rising tide of coronavirus cases.
“I’ve never discussed any of this with them,” Osterholm told ABC News.
He also said he doesn’t think there’s a national consensus for it anyway.
“Nobody’s going to support it. It’s not going to be supported out of the administration. It’s not going to be supported in Congress,” Osterholm said [Sophie Tatum and Anne Flaherty, “Biden Adviser Walks Back Earlier Proposal Calling for Lockdown,” ABC News, 2020.11.12].
Translation: America lacks the courage to do what it takes to control a pandemic. We cling to our capitalist assumptions and materialist cravings with a literal death grip.
This is why we have the highest rate of Covid in the world. Our government is controlled by greedy capitalists who would rather allow Covid to kill people than provide them with temporary relief.
Oh dear… if Congress actually helped people during this deadly pandemic, what might the people expect in the future?
You know, Kristi needs to contact New Zealand and tell them that shutdowns don’t work. What they did is all wrong. So why did they do it?
The fraudulent murdering trumpian republicans in South and North Dakota.
“In North Dakota, COVID-19 hospitalizations have risen so far that the state will “allow” asymptomatic, COVID-19-positive healthcare workers to keep working, Gov. Doug Burgum announced this week. Allowed. The lucky ducks.
COVID-19 hospitalizations in South Dakota increased by 26.5% last week, but Gov. Kristi Noem is still rejecting a mask mandate, and her spokesman points to the fact that 34% of the state’s hospital beds remain vacant. One part he’s not saying is “For now.” Another is that, as the president of Rapid City Hospital told The Washington Post, “Our limiting factor isn’t beds, it’s staff.” https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/11/13/1995552/-Midwestern-hospitals-are-running-out-of-beds-as-COVID-19-rates-skyrocket
Kinda like having 10 billfolds but no money. That’s us’ins, poor pitiful South Dakota, the bastard child of Mississippi.
“Personal responsibiity” is a failure. One should realize that when 70 million voted for personal irresponsibility. Defeating a contagious virus requires enforced mask mandates. Defeating a contagious virus requires contact tracing, limiting the size of gatherings, and in rare cases limiting the type of gatherings in settings that prove to be super spreader events: bars, etc.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/personal-responsibility-isnt-working-we-need-mask-mandates/2020/11/13/4c6db384-25e2-11eb-8672-c281c7a2c96e_story.html
Here’s a deep two-step to consider.
1) COVID protests likely pre-stage a history of civil unrest resulting from pandemics.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-11-14/2020-s-covid-protests-are-a-sign-of-the-social-unrest-to-come?srnd=premium
2) trump is desperate to stay in power because of his debts, civil, and criminal charges likely pending. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-11-14/trump-s-election-loss-leaves-him-vulnerable-to-legal-financial-woes?srnd=premium
Brian Williams had a segment on the 11th Hour Friday from Dr. Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny, and the subsequent book, The Road to Unfreedom, who also warned of a soft, clumsy coup d’etat that has to be defeated. Ignoring it will not defeat it. Retired General Barry McCaffery warned of the same thing a day earlier.
Here’s a link to Dr. Synder’s article describing his historical and common sense rationale.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/11/11/opinion/trumps-big-election-lie-pushes-america-toward-autocracy/