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.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
September 1 editorial cartoonsCartoons Monday’s political cartoons include Labor Day picnic, branding strategy, and more
-
What is Tony Blair's plan for Gaza?Today's Big Question Former PM has reportedly been putting together a post-war strategy 'for the past several months'
-
When does autumn begin?The Explainer The UK is experiencing a 'false autumn', as climate change shifts seasonal weather patterns
-
SpaceX breaks Starship losing streak in 10th testspeed read The Starship rocket's test flight was largely successful, deploying eight dummy satellites during its hour in space
-
Rabbits with 'horns' sighted across Coloradospeed read These creatures are infected with the 'mostly harmless' Shope papilloma virus
-
Lithium shows promise in Alzheimer's studySpeed Read Potential new treatments could use small amounts of the common metal
-
Scientists discover cause of massive sea star die-offSpeed Read A bacteria related to cholera has been found responsible for the deaths of more than 5 billion sea stars
-
'Thriving' ecosystem found 30,000 feet underseaSpeed Read Researchers discovered communities of creatures living in frigid, pitch-black waters under high pressure
-
New York plans first nuclear plant in 36 yearsSpeed Read The plant, to be constructed somewhere in upstate New York, will produce enough energy to power a million homes
-
Dehorning rhinos sharply cuts poaching, study findsSpeed Read The painless procedure may be an effective way to reduce the widespread poaching of rhinoceroses
-
Breakthrough gene-editing treatment saves babyspeed read KJ Muldoon was healed from a rare genetic condition
