The last time a politician told us we were going to lockdown for a few weeks, it turned into a fourth month ordeal that shut down most of the country and crippled the American economy. Dr. Michael Osterholm, who was recently
Osterholm said that America is headed for a pandemic hell that could overrun America’s hospitals and said action needs to be taken to prevent it. To do so, he suggested a four to six week nationwide lockdown.
“Our hospitals are going to be overrun,” Osterholm said. “We’re going to see the darkest days of this pandemic between now and next spring when the vaccine becomes available.”
Biden’s health expert also suggested a new bill could be created to help pay for workers’ lost wages and to compensate small businesses who will once again be forced to shut down, many never reopening again.
“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 lockdown for four-to-six weeks.”
Osterholm painted a grim picture of America’s immediate future and said he has been in contact with the Biden-Harris administration. He is part of a 13 member COVID-19 advisory board assembled by President-Elect Joe Biden.
“We have a perfect storm coming together, we have pandemic fatigue,” Osterholm said. “The virus isn’t done with them…and there’s pandemic anger, up to 30% of the population believe the virus is a hoax.”
President-elect Joe Biden has named a 13-member #coronavirus advisory board to begin preparations for his administration's response to the pandemic.
Task force member @CIDRAP's Michael Osterholm (@mtosterholm) joins us with more on how the new group will handle the crisis. pic.twitter.com/QjOgKuKQtI
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) November 10, 2020