Build Confidence As Coronavirus Cases Continue

‘America is entering a complicated new phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. The remainder of 2020 warrants flexibility and tolerance, trying different ways to adapt to new evidence’ said Dr. Scott Gottlieb’s latest blog, which continues below.

‘That challenge is a function of a complicated public-health picture combined with contradictory public attitudes.

Even as economic activity is resuming, COVID-19 disease cases are rising in about a dozen states. This isn’t a second wave; it’s a series of spikes off of the first surge.

In the coming months, some states will see infections rise while others fall. The trick will be to manage the constant risk of COVID-19 while restarting normal life.

Policymakers are inclined to react to this challenge by looking for exactly the right set of rules to impose.

But that overestimates how much of the country’s response to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has been a matter of policy, in the traditional sense.

A lot of the hand-wringing about whether the shutdowns were justified makes the same mistake.

It is clear in retrospect that there wasn’t much of a choice about whether to shut down.’

This editorial by Dr. Gottlieb, the former FDA Commissioner, and Yuval Levin, continues at the WSJ.

Coronavirus Today publishes COVID-19 pandemic news.