Here we go again! Medical officials are starting to demand the US begin a second lockdown.
“The second wave has begun,” said Professor William Schaffner at Vanderbilt University School of medicine. “We’re opening up across the country, but many, many people are not social distancing, many are not wearing their masks.”
Several states in America have reported spikes in cases however when compare per population they still are not as scary as the media would like to believe. Additionally, after almost three weeks of massive protests, it’s no surprise that cases would increase for a bit.
Schaffner also pointed out that mass gatherings and religious services are ruining the curve. “Many people are simply not being careful, they’re being carefree,” he said. “That, of course, will lead to more spread of the Covid virus.”
CNBC reports:
Schaffner warned that the second wave may be underway, disease specialists said last week that the rise in Covid-19 cases across the U.S. was actually just a continuation of the first wave of the outbreak.
Ian Lipkin, a professor of epidemiology and director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University, said that for the fresh outbreak to be defined as a second wave, the coronavirus would have needed to retreat and reappear, or a new strain of the virus would have had to emerge. He noted that the recent increase in U.S. cases “does not reflect either” scenario.
During his apocalyptic rant, Schaffner did claim that he does not believe there should be a complete shutdown because of how financially devastating the first shutdown was.
“The complete shutdown was such a financial disaster, and had so many social and cultural implications that I cannot imagine we’ll have a shutdown again,” he said.
However, that didn’t stop the CDC from hinting it may be time for another lockdown. CDC Deputy Director, Jay Butler said during a press briefing, “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.”
As cases continue to rise what the CDC hasn’t publicly reported is if hospitalizations are continuing to rise as well. States are increasing their testing capabilities and we may be all learning just how prevalent the coronavirus is and that unless you are at risk may not be as dangerous as we were told.
