Melisa Lovos Palacios
Features Editor
A nationwide lockdown has been suggested by one of President-elect Joe Biden’s advisors after records show the skyrocketing COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations. It is believed that a lockdown of approximately 4-6 weeks will decrease the number of deaths due to the virus.
Dr. Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center of Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, spoke in an interview with Yahoo Finance this Wednesday, Nov. 11. “We could lockdown for four to six weeks, and if we did that, we could drive the numbers down… We could watch ourselves cruising into the vaccine availability in the first and second quarter of the next year…” he said.
For this reason, by “listening to the scientists” this proposition was set, and is still being considered by the ordinary people and higher officials.
“Personally I wouldn’t mind being in lockdown for six weeks because it would help our fight against the virus and help Mother Nature. It may not seem like a good idea from the social point of view but it’s good for the benefit of the world, and people who make a fuss about it are just being ignorant and selfish.” said Elan Bernardo, SAS Senior.
However, there are others, like Dr. Anthony Fauci- an American Physician who has served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984- who doesn’t believe that the US needs a lockdown if people are wearing masks and practicing social distancing. The U.S leads the world with more than 241,000 deaths and 10 million coronavirus cases, and Fauci, along with others, believes that the people will follow orders without the need of setting a lockdown