The reopening gamble: Set your timer for three weeks
Set a timer for three weeks.
By late May, we should know whether certain US states collected on a major gamble or committed a hideous error by reopening their economies.
If a tide of sickness and death overwhelms the early openers, lockdowns may return, making Americans’ trudge back toward normal economic life even slower and more painful. But if infections can be kept at manageable levels, these pioneers may begin to piece together a vision of the “new normal” that everyone keeps talking about.
The good news is that some of the states beginning to open up — like South Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin were never as savagely hit as states like New York, California and Michigan. The bad news is that their turn may be next. Science warns the virus is still out there, waiting for an opening.
The White House, which always creates a version of reality to fit its political goals, wants to revive the economy asap — a key to President Donald Trump winning reelection in November. But it has failed to build a testing and tracing infrastructure to ensure a safe return to business.
Already lax White House guidelines call for a 14-day dip in infections to be observed, before reopening is considered. Almost no state has satisfied that: Georgia, the state with the most aggressive opening plan, recorded 1,000 new cases of Covid-19 on Friday alone. And Mississippi, which was set to announce re-openings of some businesses on Friday, changed its mind after recording the highest single increase in new cases.
The lockdown’s deprivations are imposing their own dire consequences. But politicians and pundits who champion this cause rarely acknowledge the potential medical consequences without resorting to magical thinking.
