Infectious Disease Expert: We Can’t Stay Locked Down for 18 Months But Also Can’t Suddenly Go Back to ‘Normal Lives’

Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert and head of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, warned on Meet the Press Sunday that the United States cannot simply just go back to normal right away as the coronavirus pandemic continues.

Chuck Todd started by asking, “Are we ready to reopen the economy?”

“What do we mean by ‘opening the economy,’ that’s really unclear,” Osterholm said. “We can’t stay locked down for 18 months, but at the same time, when you have cases increasing, deaths increasing, health care workers without adequate protective equipment, and we’re suddenly going back to what once was our normal lives, that’s not a safe place to be. We can’t do that and not expect to see a major increase in cases.”

On the subject of testing, he said, “We’re riding this tiger, we’re not directing it. This virus is going do what it’s going to do. What we can do is only nibble at the edges, and I think it’s not a good message to send to the public that we can control this virus in a meaningful way.”

“What we have to tell people honestly, what they want to hear, they don’t want it sugar coated or coated in fear, but somewhere between now and tomorrow, next year, we’re going to see 60 to 70 percent of Americans ultimately affected with this virus. What we have to do is figure out not just how to die with the virus but also how to live with it,” he continued. “And we’re not having that discussion. As Lewis Carroll said, if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there. We don’t want to give people a false sense of security that we’re going to do more than we can, but we also have to figure out how to live with this virus, and that’s what we’re not doing.”

You can watch above, via Fox News.