Trump calls New York coronavirus shutdown 'a mess' as some doctors oppose massive lockdowns
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently reimposed business shutdowns in parts of Queens and Brooklyn because of a spike in new coronavirus cases.
As the U.S. faces new infections in at least 30 states, governors continue to weigh the impact of shutdowns against the need to keep residents safe.
President Trump reasserted his opposition to such measures at a televised town hall on Thursday night, singling out Cuomo’s shutdowns as “a mess” with a “lockdown like you’ve never seen.”
“The cure cannot be worse than the problem itself,” said Trump at Thursday’s town hall. “You can’t let this continue to go on with the lockdowns.”
Some members of the medical community are also voicing their opposition to reverting back to full shutdowns.
“What we want to try and avoid - and sometimes it's unavoidable, we accept that but what we want to try and avoid – are these massive lockdowns that are so punishing to communities, to society and to everything else,” said World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Programme executive director Dr. Michael Ryan on Oct. 9 during a virtual global press conference.
Trump noticed – and tweeted on Oct. 12:
The World Health Organization just admitted that I was right. Lockdowns are killing countries all over the world. The cure cannot be worse than the problem itself. Open up your states, Democrat governors. Open up New York. A long battle, but they finally did the right thing!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 12, 2020
Dr. Tamara Moise, co-founder of Big Apple Urgent Care in Brooklyn, N.Y., approaches the controversial issue from the standpoint of being both an emergency room physician in a former coronavirus hotspot and a small-business owner.
“Health is wealth. If you’re losing your job, you’re not able to take care of your family. You’re not able to get proper health care too,” Moise told Yahoo Finance. “You have to remember these people are also – if they’re losing their jobs, they’re losing their health plans as well.”
Moise advocates for a more measured approach to the public health crisis. “We definitely just need to find as much of a middle ground as possible so that our health is taken into consideration, that we’re reducing the number of deaths but at the same time we’re not completely shutting down,” she said.
The most effective means of fighting the coronavirus in the absence of a vaccine or a cure is wearing a mask, said Moise.
“Following the rules, wearing masks, especially in a crowded environment like New York City, it helps to really keep the numbers down and keep the number of deaths down,” she said. “Our behavior is going to affect everything.”
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