Future COVID19 restrictions is a big discussion. Governor DeSantis says no lockdown in Florida. What will other governors, President Trump, and incoming president Biden do? Dr. Bart Rossi, Ph.D. joins WINK News for a discussion on the issues.
At different times throughout the past eight months, President Trump has said many times that the virus was under control (including Feb, June, and again in August) or that we were turning the corner and the pandemic was behind us. That the United States, however, has surpassed 246,000 deaths and is seeing an alarming spike in both cases and hospitalizations across the country, conflicts with that viewpoint.
Throughout the election cycle, President Trump emphasized that his administration would not call for future Covid19 restrictions or another lockdown. He also claimed time and again that, if elected, Joe Biden would.
Governor Rick DeSantis of Florida was one of those that resisted taking any drastic action on COVID19, until [in June] cases there spiked as high 15,000 a day. By September they had stemmed the tide somewhat, getting daily cases down to under 5,000 a day. But in November cases are again as high as 10,000 a day. Still, Governor DeSantis said recently that he will not lock down Florida.
America Debates
The debate has raged across America. In one camp are those that have supported President Trump, and resisted any strict measures to control the virus spread. On the other are those urging for future COVID19 restrictions, and wanting to hold elected officials accountable if they fail to take action.
And while the country continues its nation debate, misinformation is at an all-time high. Laura Ingraham compared New York City to Sweden; the former imposing severe restrictions, the latter very little. The argument was that with roughly the same populations, New York City had many more deaths. But this is a false argument. Firstly, though the population size is similar, New York City is one of the world’s busiest international crossroads; Sweden is not. So New York City has 100s of thousands more people traveling through it. In fact, during March 2020, New York City had several trade shows underway that brought 10s of thousands of attendees from around the world. The obvious omission in that Sweden vs. New York narrative would also have to include that compared to “all” of Scandanavia, Sweden has by far the worst numbers.
Fast-forward to November 2020. The question is what do we do now? What will the Governors do, what will the Biden administration push for, and will the Governors cooperate, or not?
Looking Forward
The best news to hit the headlines in recent weeks is that two pharmaceutical companies have announced they could have a vaccine shortly. It is crucial, however, to note that even if a vaccine is available by December or January, it will still take many months to (A) get it distributed to the public, and (B) additional time to contain the virus spread.
Future COVID19 Restrictions
The discussion posed to Dr. Rossi revolved around political psychology. What is Biden likely to do, and whether or not various governors across the country will follow his lead, or not?