Fauci: Yes, We Could Face Irreparable Damage If Locked Up for Too Long, Now Is the Time to Look at Reopening

Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead
AP featured image
Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony S. Fauci addresses his remarks and urges citizens to continue to follow the President’s coronavirus guidelines during a coronavirus (COVID-19) briefing Wednesday, April 22, 2020, in the James S. Brady White House Press Briefing Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)
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Seems like Dr. Anthony Fauci has finally come around to the concept that yes, there’s wrong in keeping people locked up too long too.

One of the basic problems with the “stay at home” directives is that they kept extending beyond the initial proposal: stay in to help “flatten the curve.” With that they sold people a bill of goods, because they then extended even beyond that in many states, even after the curve was flattened and the hospitals were not overwhelmed. Then it became versions of “stay in until we can guarantee that no one else will die from the virus” which is impossible, “stay in until there’s a vaccine” which is impossible to predict or “stay in until we pick a random date that we pick.”

This, despite the evidence now beginning to show that there have been no huge spikes once states or even other countries in Europe have started to re-open.

But in the meantime, what harm we have done to so many other things apart from the virus. “Listen to the scientists” shouldn’t mean ignore every other threat or concern apart from the virus but that’s what it became to some in government, such as many of the draconian governors like Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer or Phil Murphy in New Jersey or media preaching that if you considered the economy or any other threat, you were “trying to kill Grandma.”

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Now finally we’re hearing from Fauci that there could be “irreparable damage” if lockdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic go on too long. Ya think? How many millions have to lose their jobs, people die from suicide, people miss their essential medical appointments before people get that?

Fauci said on CNBC’s “Fast Money Halftime Report” that he’s always believed that people shouldn’t be kept locked down longer than was necessary, and that they should open once they met specific benchmarks.

From Daily Caller:

“We can’t stay locked down for such a considerable period of time that you might do irreparable damage and have unintended consequences, including consequences for health,” Fauci explained, adding, “We are enthusiastic about reopening. I think we can do it in pace that would be reasonable and would get us back as a society from a morale standpoint as well as the economy.”

“I don’t want people to think that any of us feel that staying locked down for prolonged period of time is the way to go,” Fauci continued. “We had to do that when we had the explosion of cases, but now is the time depending upon where you are and what your situation is, to look at reopening the economy, reopening the country to try to get back to some degree of normal. I’m totally in favor of that if it’s done in the proper way in the appropriate setting.”

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Ok, so now that Fauci has said it too, can we dispense with the media preaching against it and get on with the reopening?

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