Whether to quickly lift COVID-19 lockdowns sparks controversy in U.S.
Even though the spread of COVID-19 has barely peaked in the United States, White House officials and some state governors have already planned to restart the economy, vowing to strike "a balancing point." Whether to ease COVID-19 curbs fast, as hoped for by the West Wing, has aroused bitter debate among scientists and officials.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, as of Sunday night the United States has reported nearly 1.5 million COVID-19 cases and over 89,000 deaths. Meanwhile, 48 states have lifted or partially lifted their "stay at home" orders.
On Tuesday, top U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci, along with three other medical experts, testified remotely to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
Fauci suggested in the hearing that states pump the brakes on reopening until the number of new cases per day starts to decline -- a viewpoint contradicted by U.S. President Donald Trump, who has urged states to relax COVID-19 restrictions as soon as possible.
The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who has served under six presidents, pushed back on the claim that schools could be reopened because the coronavirus does not appear to be as lethal to young children.
It would be "a bridge too far" to expect a vaccine or treatment to be available by fall to facilitate students returning to college campuses, Fauci testified.
At a hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health on Thursday, Rick Bright, a whistle-blower who had been ousted as head of a federal medical research agency, said "if we fail to improve our response now, based on science, I fear the pandemic will get far worse and be prolonged."
"There will be likely a resurgence of COVID-19 this fall that will be greatly compounded by the challenges of seasonal influenza," said the former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority under the Department of Health and Human Services. "Without better planning, 2020 could be the darkest winter in modern history."
In an interview with FOX Business following Tuesday's hearing, Trump called Fauci "a very good person" but said he disagreed with the scientist.
"We have to get the schools open, we have to get our country open," Trump said. "Now we want to do it safely, but we also want to do it as quickly as possible, we can't keep going on like this ... You're having bedlam already in the streets, you can't do this."
"Look, he (Fauci) wants to play all sides of the equation," Trump told reporters during a White House event. "It's just, to me it's not an acceptable answer, especially when it comes to schools."
For the economy and people relying on regular paychecks, lockdown is painful. Statistics show that about 36 million Americans have filed new jobless claims in the past two months, and the country's first quarter GDP shrank 4.8 percent, with a grim outlook.
On Wednesday, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said in remarks webcast by Washington-based think tank Peterson Institute for International Economics that COVID-19 raises "long-term concerns," warning that a prolonged recession and weak recovery could lead to an extended period of low productivity growth and stagnant incomes.
On May 10, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Fox News Sunday that "if we do this (reopening) carefully, working with the governors, I don't think there's a considerable risk," adding "I think there's a considerable risk of not reopening. You're talking about what would be permanent economic damage to the American public."
But as New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has said, if social distancing measures are lifted prematurely and improperly, people will likely have "to go through this hell all over again."