Tuesday, March 24, 2020

What Is More Important? The Health of the American People or the economy?


“Extreme measures to flatten the virus ‘curve’ is sensible-for a time-to stretch out the strain on health infrastructure. But crushing the economy, jobs and morale is also a health issue-and beyond. Within a very few weeks let those with a lower risk to the disease return to work”-Lloyd Blankfein



“Lloyd Blankfein is the CEO of Goldman Sachs. As one of the world’s richest capitalists, he is frightened by the current pandemic.

“He’s not frightened because of the possibility that millions of people will die. He is frightened that without workers back on the job, money will be lost, his money and the money of the .01%.

“Donald Trump echoed Blankfein yesterday when he said that the stay-at-home directive of the CDC ‘cannot be worse than the problem itself’.

“The president is questioning whether stay-at-home orders have gone too far. But relaxing them could significantly increase the death toll from the coronavirus, health officials warn, including health experts like Anthony Fauci, who was not at his usual spot during Monday’s press briefing on COVID19

“Without government support for the millions of workers who have lost earnings over the past week, the pressure to return to work will be great even at great personal risk.

“Trump is looking to lift the stay-at-home order as soon as 10 days from now. Make no mistake. It is a potential death order for millions.”



2 comments:

  1. “‘Our country was not built to be shut down,’ the President warned on Monday. ‘We are going to be opening up our country for business because our country was meant to be open. We are going to get it all going again very soon,’ he said, without setting a timeline -- though he previously called for rethinking the White House's guidance on social distancing next week.

    “His comments came on day when the number of confirmed cases soared past 40,000 and 100 people died in a single day for the first time. Dr. Deborah Birx, a member of Trump's coronavirus task force, warned that the ‘attack rate’ of the disease in New York, America's dominant economic and financial powerhouse, was five times that of elsewhere…

    “Trump's change of emphasis previewed a building confrontation inside his own administration -- between public health officials using the science of epidemiology to battle Covid-19 and political and economic officials desperate to save an economy that is fundamental to basic life and Trump's reelection hopes…” (CNN).

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  2. "We can revive our economy. We can't revive the people that are lost to this virus," Gov. JB Pritzker said Tuesday in response to comments made by President Donald Trump. "In case there's any doubt in your minds, I'm not willing to sacrifice anyone. There is no life in this state that is more or less precious than any other; no person more or less worthy of saving. I want grandparents around to help raise their grandchildren. I want people to spend years after this is over, celebrating birthdays and wedding anniversaries and retirements" - Gov. J.B. Pritzker

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