The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) warned on Friday that another lockdown might be necessary if the country suffers a “dramatic” rise in coronavirus infections.
“If cases begin to go up again, particularly if they go up dramatically, it’s important to recognize that more mitigation efforts such as what were implemented back in March may be needed again,” CDC Deputy Director Jay Butler claimed at a press briefing.
The warning came just in time for another big round of shoulder-to-shoulder protests in New York City, home to about a third of all U.S. coronavirus infections and deaths.
Butler reminded reporters that the coronavirus “pandemic is not over,” although perhaps he should have aimed his message at New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. Protestors in his city continue to violate all social distancing rules encouraged by the CDC.
Yesterday, de Blasio even defended his own daughter, Chiara, for her appearance at one of those lockdown-violating protests, where she got arrested.
The latest CDC guidelines warn that the highest risk for coronavirus spread exists at “Large in-person gatherings where it is difficult for individuals to remain spaced at least 6 feet apart and attendees travel from outside the local area.”
Like this one:
If there’s any good news in the CDC’s message, it’s that they don’t appear to be suggesting another nationwide lockdown. Butler said implementation “is a decision that really needs to be made locally based on what is happening within the community regarding” coronavirus transmission.
Left unsaid: What would constitute a “dramatic” rise requiring another lockdown. Some figures would be nice, but for now, we’re left to guess what exactly the CDC might mean.
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Fortunately, Susie Moore at our sister site RedState did run the numbers and concluded that fears over huge new numbers of infection might be more “spin” than anything else.
Here are her numbers:
If we’re experiencing a spike, that average should be higher over the past week, right? Between June 7 and June 14, total cases have increased from 1,920,061 to 2,074,526, with an average increase in new cases of 1.1% per day. (I do have to add a caveat — over the past two days, we’ve averaged a 1.25% increase per day. But two days does not a trend make — and recall, those news stories announcing a resurgence in cases came out earlier in the week and reportedly resulted in the market panic.) Now, is it possible that over the next week, we’ll see that average daily increase climb back up? Yes. It’s possible. But I remain skeptical (and hopeful).
Susie concludes with a note of bitter sarcasm: “I’m beginning to think some of the information we’re being fed derives from a political agenda.”
Indeed.
The key thing to keep in mind is that these are the coronavirus numbers we’re seeing as Americans have been enjoying looser lockdown restrictions in many states. In other places, people are ignoring more draconian restrictions while still using common sense, and in the case of protestors and rioters, completely ignoring every single recommendation about how not to catch the coronavirus.
As others have noted, there seem to be two sets of coronavirus lockdown rules: One for the Left and another for the Right.
The double standard is so blatant that it will end up harming public health efforts — on the slim chance that it hasn’t already.
How is the CDC going to keep law-abiding Americans in any kind of coronavirus lockdown while protestors and rioters continue to break every regulation, ordnance, and guideline with impunity?
How will the CDC get anyone to take their warnings seriously, after weeks of protests and loosening lockdown restrictions result in no major spikes in coronavirus infections or deaths?
Our “expert” class has suffered massive self-inflicted wounds in recent months, and given everything we saw this weekend, Friday’s CDC statement was probably just more of the same.
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