There's been some optimism coming from the White House, governors, and scientists about the United States' COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic trajectory as social distancing and stay-at-home orders seem to be slowing the rate of new infections. But that doesn't mean the country should expect the pandemic to end soon.
Teams of scientists are still cautioning against re-opening the economy too soon, including one led by former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb and Caitlin Rivers of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Their group believes it won't be safe for states to relax any restrictions until new COVID-19 case counts have fallen for 14 consecutive days. While U.S. rates are leveling off and no longer growing exponentially as they did early on during the pandemic, it hasn't hit that two-week goal yet. "My sense is that we haven't turned the corner," Rivers told The Atlantic.
Not even Rivers and Gottlieb are sure if their current plan is the correct one, however. Rivers said that because the country has never experienced a pandemic on this scale in modern times, there's no "real playbook" and everyone needs to be "flexible" about the timeline for easing the guidelines. Read more at The Atlantic.
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