Trump’s “Opening Up America Again”: On Paper, It’s Great, In Practice, Probably Not

[corbe]

Trump’s “Opening Up America Again”: On Paper, It’s Great, In Practice, Probably Not

While on paper, Trump's plan seems rational, reasonable, and well organized, in practice, it will be a collection of fits and starts, one step forward and two steps back events, new hotspots, factories opening and then closing again, small towns seemingly free from the virus getting suddenly slammed, and waves of fear spreading after collective jubilant celebrations.

by Steve Berman
 
President Trump’s “Opening Up America Again” plan, on paper is a good, cautious, not over-reaching plan of how a nation wracked by a terrible virus with no vaccine should begin to loosen social and economic restrictions.

On paper, it’s a good plan. But there’s a lot of “depends” in there.

For example, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, one of the “wide open” places the president seemed to envision from his podium, contains the hottest and biggest hot spot in America for COVID-19. The Smithfield port processing plant has suffered 733 cases to date, according to The New York Times.

Its hourly wage employees are typically low-earning immigrants, making anywhere from $12.75 to nearly $20 an hour. This kind of business, which is deemed essential, whether it’s meat packing or distribution or toilet paper production, exists all over the country. And despite the countermeasures companies deploy to fight the virus and keep it out, when it does get in, it can quickly devastate a workplace and the surrounding community.

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https://theresurgent.com/2020/04/17/trumps-opening-up-america-again-on-paper-its-great-in-practice-probably-not/

[goatprairie]

At some point we're going to have to open up regardless of the consequences. You can't shut an economy like that of the U.S. down for a long length of time without doing severe damage. Actually, severe damage has already been done, further waiting until after May will make things a lot worse.
Sure, the deaths might increase, but unless a large percent of the people going back to work are infected and cannot work, we have to try it out.
The damage from an economy shutdown for many months will result in far more deaths than what will happen from an economy reopened after the curve flattens.