Joe Biden health advisor: Covid-19 advisory panel doesn't support full U.S. lockdown

Two of President-elect Joe Biden’s coronavirus advisors pushed back Friday on the idea of a national lockdown to suppress the coronavirus pandemic.

“As a group, really the consensus is that we need a more nuanced approach,” Dr. Celine Gounder, who sits on the panel and is an infectious disease specialist at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” adding that it was “not the opinion” of the group to institute such widespread restrictions across the U.S. “We can be much more targeted geographically. We can also be more targeted in terms of what we close.”

Dr. Vivek Murthy, a former U.S. surgeon general tapped to help lead the group, said national lockdowns were recommended in the spring when scientists didn’t know as much about how the disease spreads and people were less fatigued from the pandemic.

“We’re not in a place where we’re saying, ‘Shut the whole country down,”’ Murthy said in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America,” advocating for a more targeted approach. “If we don’t do that, what you’re going to find is that people will become even more fatigued, schools won’t be open to children and the economy will be hit harder.”

Their comments come after another Covid-19 advisor to Biden, Dr. Michael Osterholm, who serves as director of the Center of Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told Yahoo Finance in an interview Wednesday that shuttering businesses for four to six weeks while paying people for lost wages could help suppress cases and hospitalizations to a manageable level.

Osterholm later clarified his comments in an interview with NBC News, saying, “It was not a recommendation. I have never made this recommendation to Biden’s group. We’ve never talked about it.”

A Biden transition official told NBC News that a shutdown “is not in line with the president-elect’s thinking.”

Rather than adopting a comprehensive lockdown approach, Gounder told CNBC that state officials should focus on implementing tighter restrictions in regions of the country where there’s a high risk for the virus to spread, such as restaurants, bars and gyms, and aim to keep their schools open for students.

“I think of this as a dimmer switch, not an on-and-off light switch,” she said. “I think we need to close only those things that really are contributing to the spread, and really try to ... as much as possible remain open, like schools, if they’re not contributing to the spread.”

A handful of states and cities have started to implement tighter restrictions, including curfews, mask requirements and limits on group gatherings, ahead of the winter as scientists warn that the U.S. is entering what will likely be the “darkest days of the pandemic.”

The U.S. has reported three consecutive days of record-breaking daily new Covid-19 cases, reaching a weekly average of 131,445 cases a day, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

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[ColonelBragg]

Sounds like they wanna do the exact same thing the Trump admin did but this time with full media support

[SheepofTheShepherd-nulz]

#gaslightedscamdemic

The Great Reset stage has begun folks.

[moderate]

Excellent answers. Target lockdown. Contact

[mariahzarate]

LOOKS LIKE ANOTHER LOCKDOWN MAY BE COMING‼️
My office is looking for people to work from home anywhere in the U.S. All online & full training provided! Must be able to pass a background check. Who’s interested?

[johntaylor-loqx]

Look at what Tawian and Korea did, for the love of God Also let healthy people open ALL their stores, and give checks or handouts to the vulnerable so they can order groceries and stay safe. Not to the young and healthy. Why is this so hard to comprehend??? This is why these conspiracy theorists have an argument. Look at the countries who have done this right !!!!

[vmobile]

Only Close those things that contributing to the spread mouth and nose ?

[vicentvanmole]

I don't agree w the Dr. .School is an essential service &in low risk.Also why we get where we are is Mobility..fact Virus need a host, to move from people to people.the 14 days is the time needed to break a chain . If even a small fraction of a chain isn't broken, virus will move on as people travel .Therefore to stop this long chain now need to longer time of complete lock down /partial lock down no longer effective because the chain is too much intertwined.

[RealJackHQ]

There should be a way where we can build temporary homes for seniors living in nursing homes during this pandemic, or at least should have been a way that was explored much earlier. There needs to be increased oral testing. There should be an interstate travel ban regarding states that are seeing huge spikes in cases. And, you need to make sure governors are actually using the temporary hospitals that have been built underneath the Trump administration.

[mikemcclernon]

Shepard Smith is on CNBC..?
Kerrnan sounds ill...

[amvorv]

To GIVES us and gave us "HOPE" to HEAL the world..

[joshuaguthrie]

The death total of this pandemic is less than 1/3 of 1%, The masked Man dates the social distance thing are always to see how much of our freedoms we're going to give up don't be a coward do not shut down do not comply if God forbid this should happen don't be sheeple

[RTCarterful]

Full lockdown is something nobody wants, Democrats or Republicans. The economy is to function. We need people working for obvious reasons. Democrats and Republicans know and want the economy functioning. Do it carefully and deal with the virus as a unresolved problem.

[g.d.]

Great lib....always can tell the slow ones..

[susindharanrc]

Feeling proud of her
She has a strong connection to my native State, tamilnadu (india)