“As an ER physician, do you think should we open up the country again?”

“As an ER physician, do you think should we open up the country again?”

I’ve been asked many versions of this question over the last few days. Here are my thoughts.

Yes.

We are ready to start reducing and eliminating COVID-19 restrictions over the next few weeks and months.

But how exactly should we do this?

Slowly. Incrementally. Intentionally. Cautiously.

And we have to be willing and able to back up a bit when and where we need to. Both personally and publicly.

We cannot go from a closed economy where COVID-19 is manageable to a wide-open economy where COVID-19 doesn’t exist.

Because it does exist. COVID-19 isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

And reopening the economy WILL cause a rise in COVID-19 cases. It will happen. And that is a risk we have to take now as long as it stays manageable. Which it has been because of the actions we have taken as a nation.

Remember, the entire point of closing the economy was to “flatten the curve”… keeping the spread of coronavirus at a manageable rate so the medical system does not get overwhelmed.

We were never closing the economy to eradicate COVID-19.

So we have now kept things manageable from a healthcare perspective. I believe that flattening the curve has helped. And this causes the models to change. And it causes recommendations to change.

I was very much in favor of shutting things down.

I am now very much in favor of opening things back up.

But please let’s do this with wisdom.

We still need to follow social distancing recommendations.

We still need to avoid large crowds.

We still need to be extra cautious with those who we know are at higher risk; but we also need to understand that many who are not “high risk” may get very sick.

This is still a serious situation.

We have this wildfire seemingly under control.

But the fire is not stamped out yet.