Coronavirus: A sustainable way to restart the economy

As the United States surpasses a month of quarantine, politicians and health officials are discussing when and how the country should reopen and resume business as usual.

On April 17, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced that beaches should begin reopening.

According to the New York Times, DeSantis specified that Florida’s municipalities need to “Do it in a good way. Do it in a safe way.”

Many other states, especially in the south are pushing to reopen.

Georgia recently announced that they would open hair and nail salons among other businesses that were deemed “non-essential.”

Trump has deflected his responsibility to unite the countries quarantine efforts and instead has opted to support the southern coalition.

They argue that the economic implications reason enough to end social-distancing and other quarantine practices.

Trump has stated that governors must choose when and how their states reopen.

This would benefit states that have not been impacted as hard in the sense that they can begin reopening and start economic recovery, but this immediate reopening defeats the purpose of quarantine.

One state opening means that the surrounding states are subject to travelers and workers coming in and out of the open state.

This means that anyone who is a vector will be able to spread it to those around them and across state lines.

Even though COVID-19 has made, and will continue to make a major financial impact, it will continue to have major health implications.

The south may believe that they are ready to open, but hard hit areas such as New York City, cannot take the risk of other states being opened.

More specifically, the healthcare system cannot take that risk.

New York City has had a staggering death rate and cannot keep up with the cases they are receiving, even with much of Northeast under stay-at-home orders.

The PPE, or personal protective gear, must be rationed amongst healthcare professionals.

Many hospital workers are working extreme hours in horrible conditions without enough PPE, ventilators, or other supplies to go around.

Not only that, but they are being exposed to the virus, with a number of healthcare workers contracting it and some dying.

Not only that, there aren’t enough beds which has caused some groups to open field hospitals in Central Park  in order to help hold the extreme influx of patients.

Even though the situation is desperate in areas such as New York, others who are not as affected see it as their right to reopen the country.

This selfish, seemingly convenient method will lead to more deaths, continue to overwhelm the healthcare system, and further delay the entire country to begin recovering together.

As hard as it is to remain patient, especially for those facing food, housing, or financial insecurity, the country needs to continue to buy the healthcare system time.

This precious time is necessary in order to help each patient receive the care level they require and to give researchers more time to develop and produce test kits and hopefully find a vaccine.

The reopening of the country must be sustainable.

If everyone immediately ends social distancing the second their governor raises the stay-at-home order, then the virus will spread more rapidly.

As a result, the country as a whole would have to re-lock down in order to attempt to contain a new spread, not to mention any new strains that may mutate from this.

Closing down for a slightly longer time will prevent the need for a second quarantine.

Trump should reclaim his authority and responsibility to decide what the county should do.

If he orders everyone to maintain social distancing and continues to enforce stay-at-home orders, then the country will remain safer and be able to begin reopening at an earlier date and at a faster rate.

As areas begin to reopening, they must continue to maintain social distancing practices in order to continue to slow the spread of the virus.

If areas open up all at once, they will be flooded with crowds of people that could become infected.

This process should be slow and start with the most needed industries, especially small businesses who will bear the most economic scars from this.

The country cannot begin reopening yet, but when that time comes, it must be gradual in order to minimize the spread of coronavirus and help the country, and the world to begin to recover from this crisis.