New Rules for Covid Summer: Be Flexible and Vigilant
By Scott Gottlieb (original source Wall Street Journal)
“America is entering a complicated new phase of the Covid-19 pandemic. The remainder of 2020 warrants flexibility and tolerance, trying different ways to adapt to new evidence. In a country with such fractured politics, this will be no small challenge.
That challenge is a function of a complicated public-health picture combined with contradictory public attitudes. Even as economic activity is resuming, Covid cases are rising in about a dozen states. This isn’t a second wave; it’s a series of spikes off the first surge. In the coming months, some states will see infections rise while others fall. The trick will be to manage the constant risk of Covid while restarting normal life.
Policy makers are inclined to react to this challenge by looking for exactly the right set of rules to impose. But that overestimates how much of the country’s response to the virus has been a matter of policy, in the traditional sense. A lot of the hand-wringing about whether the shutdowns were justified makes the same mistake.”
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