An advisor to President-elect Joe Biden has suggested the possibility of a nationwide shutdown to help contain the spread of COVID-19 if financial aid could be provided.
Dr. Michael Osterholm, says the nation has a big pool of money it could borrow, at historic low-interest rates. He says that the nation could pay for a package right now to cover all of the lost wages for individual workers, losses to small companies and medium-sized companies, for cities, states, county governments.
If that happens, he said the country could potentially lockdown for four to six weeks.
Osterholm was chosen to be part of Biden’s coronavirus task force. He is currently the Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, and he was formerly a science envoy for health security at the State Department.
