___
April 15
The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer on recent calls to reopen the economy:
As states across the country approach the back half of stay-at-home orders - and as many report better-than-expected case counts and death totals - there’s new momentum for Americans to return to work. The president has formed a task force designed to reopen parts of the economy as early as May 1. Some of his advisers don’t even want to wait that long, and “reopen” movements are popping up across the country, including in North Carolina, where a group with more than 22,000 supporters wants Gov. Roy Cooper to let people go back to work at the end of April.
It’s a bad idea. Let’s make plain what will happen if the nation’s governors - who despite Donald Trump’s assertions get to make this call - were to follow that advice:
If we try to go back to normal too quickly, more people will die.
If we decide too soon that our national and local economies have to be rescued, people will die and those economies will suffer.
If we look at the better-than-expected COVID-19 numbers and conclude that the models were wrong instead of public health restrictions being right, we will face a new and catastrophic surge.
Public health officials have told us this again and again about fighting COVID-19. And they have been right. Not the people who insist, even now, that the virus is no worse than the plain old flu. Not the people who promote the persistent lunacy that COVID-19 is being hyped by anti-Trumpers to take down the president’s economy. The experts have been right about the need to close schools, to shutter restaurant dining rooms, to stay six feet away for everyone’s sake. They’ve been right about such measures being necessary everywhere, including rural states and counties, despite some stubborn leaders risking their constituents’ lives.
No, public health officials have not been flawless, but they and the governors who acted decisively have saved their states from a president who for weeks delivered a much different message about COVID-19. Now those same governors - both Democrat and Republican - will have to save us from human nature, from the tendency to believe what we see instead of what we’re told.
We understand that for most, the reopen movement is fueled by genuine economic fear. People are out of work. Their businesses and dreams are dying, and there are legitimate questions in North Carolina and elsewhere about when the cost of shuttering businesses will outweigh the benefit of continued restrictions.
Those questions are not yet answerable, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, said April 14. Public health officials need better data about the virus to evaluate the risks of bringing people together again. That includes more robust testing of people who have had COVID-19 symptoms, as well as those who have been exposed. It also includes contract tracing to reveal where and how fast the virus is spreading or abating, as well as blood testing throughout states to track immunity and exposure.
That information, along with COVID-19 data states already possess, needs to be made widely available so that policy makers and the public are better equipped to make decisions. “Trust us” should not be an option for any state, including North Carolina. Especially now, Americans need to understand why COVID-19 demands sacrifices from us, and why the alternative to those sacrifices remains, at least for the near future, a very dangerous path to take.
Online: https://www.newsobserver.com
Online: https://www.charlotteobserver.com
___
April 13
The Winston-Salem Journal on threats to the United States Postal Service:
As heavy winds took down trees and the skies threatened thunderstorms throughout the South on April 12, area residents - and residents throughout the country - knew they could count on one institution: the United States Postal Service would be delivering the mail.
But this certainty is under threat now like never before, thanks to the coronavirus recession - and presidential opposition.
Back in March, affected by a COVID-19-related decrease in first-class and marketing mail - which largely pays the bills - the Postal Service requested a $13 billion grant to help keep it afloat. It projected that it would lose $2 billion each month the coronavirus recession lasted and, without support, could be “financially illiquid” by Sept. 30. Congressional legislators, both Republicans and Democrats, agreed and initially included it in the first relief bill.
But Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin warned that President Trump would veto the bill if a grant for the Postal Service were included. So Congress instead requested a $10 billion Treasury Department loan, which passed over Mnuchin’s objections.
On April 9, Postmaster General Megan Brennan asked for another $50 billion - $25 billion to offset lost revenue from declining mail volume because of the coronavirus and $25 billion for “modernization” - plus another $25 billion Treasury loan and a mechanism to pay down $14 billion in existing public debt.
Mnuchin has indicated that this will not happen.
“I’m so frustrated at how difficult it has been for a long time to galvanize attention and action around an essential service,” Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) said in a phone interview with The Washington Post. “And maybe the pandemic forces us all to refocus on this service and how essential it is and how we need to fix it while we can before it gets into critical condition.”
He’s right. The Postal Service, which employs around 600,000 workers, is beloved by many Americans who understand the extraordinary public service it provides. Right now it’s delivering prescriptions, food, household necessities and, supposedly, relief checks - at bargain prices.
It goes to remote areas that Amazon, UPS and FedEx will not go - often carrying those organizations’ packages - because it’s fulfilling a mission, not a profit margin.
As one postal worker posted on Twitter last week, “I know whose lawns to not cut across, whose dogs want to bite, and whose want to play. I know whose day will be made brighter with a short convo, and who wants me to go away. I know who is bad at checking the mail, and who to call for a wellness check on if it starts to pile up.”
And right now, postal workers are taking great risk. As of last week, nearly 500 postal workers had tested positive for coronavirus. Nineteen postal workers had died and more than 6,000 are in self-quarantine because of exposure.
Trump has been hostile to the Postal Service for some time - as have some conservatives, who would like to see its services privatized. Like it or not, his reluctance to support it feeds into the narrative that he’s currently using relief assistance to reward his political friends and punish his political foes. This type of political payback would be disappointing at any time, but particularly during a national emergency.
A lot of people have heard about the Postal Service’s trials via social media and are responding by posting praise for postal workers and buying stamps at USPS.com. But more will be needed to keep it alive. Anyone who has been tempted to call their representatives - now would be a good time. You could also send a letter.
Online: https://www.journalnow.com
___
April 11
The Fayetteville Observer on possible consequences of relaxing social distancing guidelines too soon:
There are hints and sometimes direct statements from our leaders that what is even considered normal will dramatically change.
One of the more difficult and vexing questions in the coronavirus pandemic is “when?”
When will life return to some semblance of what we call normal? For how long will we live on islands of social distance, as the practice has been depicted by at least one editorial cartoonist.
Different experts seem to present different timelines. Projections of the course of the disease and its lethality seem fluid.
There are hints and sometimes direct statements from our leaders that what is even considered normal will dramatically change.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the respected epidemiologist on the White House coronavirus task force, said in an interview this past week he believes the custom of shaking hands should end. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a guidance that advised everyone to wear masks when they go out, a seeming reversal of its earlier stance.
In the meantime, we received the upsetting, if expected, news that the United States is now far and away the world leader in infections of the virus, as we hurtled toward half a million people infected. And our country will shortly be the world leader in deaths, too.
But there have been shoots of hope as well. Fauci said the distancing - the shutting down of large parts of our country - is working. The most influential model of COVID-19′s projected course suggested that the killer disease might claim 60,000 lives by August, down from what had been projected at 82,000. That number is still tragic, but well below earlier fatality projections that ran to 100,000 to 200,000 Americans or even higher.
In North Carolina too, the model lowered the number of projected deaths, from 2,400 to 500.
But here’s the caveat: The improved outcomes assume continued social distancing at least through the month of May. Gov. Roy Cooper’s stay-at-home order goes through April 29, though he has said it would be extended if necessary.
Raising the question again: How long?
As the country faces a recession that may outstrip the 2008 meltdown and double-digit unemployment, people are worried and anxious to get the American economy going again. Most national and state leaders agree this won’t happen this month. But we predict May will bring intense battles on what should happen next, battles that will break into open ideological warfare in June.
The cost of moving too soon, before we have this disease at bay, is obvious: We could reignite the infections and undermine all efforts made to date. That means any effort to return the workforce back to their stations must involve widespread, rigorous, credible and easily available testing for COVID-19. That is the only way people will feel confident they are going to work but not risking their own lives or the lives of someone they love. And yes, initially, and maybe continuing for some time, people should mask up to ensure they are not spreading illness to their co-workers or people whom they encounter during their work day.
To ensure a safe transition of U.S. workers back to work, the country will have to do something it has done only inconsistently so far, which is to move forward with a coordinated, joint effort between state governments and the administration of Donald Trump. State governors have been the ones to issue the stay-at-home orders, which limits the ability of the president to re-open the country for business. Mass testing cannot be effective, either, unless these entities work closely together.
Only with national coordination can we begin to properly - and safely - answer that vexing question.
When?
Online: https://www.fayobserver.com
Please read our comment policy before commenting.