Are More Lockdowns Inevitable, Or Can Other Measures Stop The Surge?
As the U.S. wades deeper into a brutal fall surge of the coronavirus, Americans are living under a growing list of restrictions aimed at curbing the exponential rise of COVID-19.
They come in all shapes and sizes.
California has resorted to a curfew. Other states — including Oregon and Washington — have moved to partial lockdowns, shuttering sectors of the economy and limiting social gatherings. Quite a few states are trying to find a middle ground that staves off the economic pain of closing businesses altogether and ordering people to stay home.
But given the unrelenting advance of the virus, can these varied approaches make a difference? Or is it delaying the inevitable return to the sweeping lockdowns of the springtime?
"It's really hard to slow it down once it gets going like this," says Don Milton, professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Health. "That's when these awful draconian measures come into play."
The Trump administration has reiterated that any kind of national lockdown is off the table.
A top to President-elect Joe Biden has even pushed back on using the term "lockdown" to describe what many states did during the spring and has indicated that would be too heavy-handed a response.
