Experts have warned of a second wave of COVID-19.
But this really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.
After all, until a vaccine is discovered or herd immunity is reached, it is impossible to stop the spread of COVID-19.
The only way to do that would be to force everyone to stay at home… indefinitely.
And that is NOT going to happen.
President Trump has announced that he will NOT shut down the country a second time if a second wave of COVID-19 comes.
The good news, though, is that everyone is well aware of what they should be doing.
People are social distancing, wearing masks, and washing their hands.
It's time to trust people and give them personal responsibility to make decisions that are right for them and their families.
Meanwhile, vulnerable populations should continue to be cautious and stay at home when possible.
As President Trump has famously said, we cannot allow the cure to be worse than the virus itself!
More on Trump's statements below:
With the exception of New York, the rest of the U.S. has fared relatively well in regards to COVID-19.
When New York is taken out of the equation, the U.S. is among the best performing countries in terms of fatalities, hospitalizations, and spreads.
The outbreak and Democratic management in New York have single-handedly skewed the entire nation's numbers.
According to CNBC, President Trump has pledged to crackdown on individual "fires" to keep them from spreading, but that this wouldn't necessitate a second lockdown:
President Donald Trump on Thursday said “we are not closing our country” if the U.S. is hit by a second wave of coronavirus infections.
“People say that’s a very distinct possibility, it’s standard,” Trump said when asked about a second wave during a tour of a Ford factory in Michigan.
“We are going to put out the fires. We’re not going to close the country,” Trump said. “We can put out the fires. Whether it is an ember or a flame, we are going to put it out. But we are not closing our country.”
Trump has previously said there may be “embers” of the pandemic that persist in the U.S. past the summer, but he maintains that they will be stamped out. Health experts, including those in the Trump administration, have said that the virus will likely continue to spread through the fall and winter, and may become even more difficult to combat once flu season begins.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House coronavirus task force, told The Washington Post this week that he has “no doubt” there will be new waves of cases.
“The virus is not going to disappear,” he told Post. “It’s a highly transmissible virus. At any given time, it’s some place or another. As long as that’s the case, there’s a risk of resurgence.”
State leaders, not the federal government, have imposed harsh restrictions on residents and businesses to try to slow the spread of the disease. But with the U.S. economy straining under the social distancing rules, Trump has loudly called on the country to begin the reopening process.
All 50 states have now begun some level of reopening – including New York, the epicenter of the crisis in the U.S. – even as cases continue to rise in some parts of the country.
Over 30 million Americans are unemployed.
The speed and velocity of unemployment exceeds even the Great Depression.
Thousands of small businesses and mom-and-pop shops across the nation are being permanently closed because of the pandemic.
Now that we know more about the virus, we can safely reopen while protecting the most vulnerable populations.
The overall number of cases in the United States is slowing down.
There has been a slight increase in hospitalizations, but that is due to hotspots across the nation.
Because social distancing measures as well as healthy hygiene practices are well known, the spread of COVID-19 will be immensely slower as the economy reopens compared to before the lockdown.
According to Yahoo Finance:
In the U.S., overall cases appear to be slowing, although some areas are seeing slight increases in hospitalizations. This week, the U.S. crossed 1.5 million this week, and the death toll passed 94,000 this week, but virtually all 50 states are moving to ease restrictions to some degree while companies are making strides toward finding a vaccine.
However, the increasingly dire state of the U.S. economy has put growing political pressure on Trump, who’s facing a highly competitive reelection bid in November. With the Senate unlikely to address the question of additional stimulus until early June, skyrocketing unemployment has the White House on the defensive.
Touring a Ford car plant in Michigan on Thursday, the president told reporters that the national push to reopen the economy would not be reversed even if there is a second wave. “We’re not going to close the country, we’re going to put out the fires,” he added.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, added to the debate on Friday, telling CNBC that states and localities should continue relaxing lockdowns, but with strong social distancing practices in place.
New York and New Jersey, the two largest clusters of COVID-19 infections in the country, are taking baby steps toward reopening. Garden State’s beaches will be open for the Memorial Day holiday weekend — but New York City’s still high infections and strained hospital capacity are keeping the city from relaxing its own restrictions. In a briefing Friday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said every region except the Big Apple would be open after next week.
“We said deliberately at the beginning of this, it’s going to be one standard that is data driven, there’s no politics here, and safe is safe,” Cuomo told reporters. “What’s safe for your health in New York City. I’m not going to put your life at more risk or less risk than a life in Buffalo. It doesn’t work that way.”
Meanwhile, companies are mapping out return to work strategies without the existence of a vaccine. Many tech companies are eyeing return to offices between next month and the end of 2020, but others — including Facebook (FB) — are expanding its focus on remote workers. The social network is pushing for hiring in areas of the country it hasn’t previously had a presence.
While other industries have been largely negatively affected by the pandemic, one sector that has been buoyed by it is health insurance.
Experts anticipate a strong year on savings from the halt in elective procedures and decrease in health service volumes in the second quarter. In a note Friday, Moody’s said it expects the second quarter to be strong, and mixed effects from the coronavirus recession in the longer term.
“Even if there is a second wave, unless it is far worse than this current outbreak, it would also appear to be a small earnings event for the health insurers,” according to the note.
The reality is that Trump has handled the crisis decisively.
He made the early, though unpopular call, to lock the border with China.
He has given the states the resources necessary to fight the pandemic and has assembled two taskforces with the best experts in the world.
Trump created the largest private-public partnership ever to allow the mass production of protective medical equipment.
The reality is that no matter what Trump does, the Democrats and their allies in the media will find a way to unfairly criticize him.
Join the conversation!
Please share your thoughts about this article below. We value your opinions, and would love to see you add to the discussion!