Should the United States ‘re-open’? This is a question that many people have right now, and as we have emphasized at Shoebat.com, there are many concerns about COVID-19 that are unanswered, and with more disinformation that information available, it is always a prudent choice to prefer caution to blind speed in any decision, for while the nation’s economy is important, it has been dead for a long time, and the lives of individual people are more important than making a profit.
As a new report from the Miami Herald notes, citing multiple polls across the political spectrum, almost two-thirds of Americans are concerned that state governments are rushing to “re-open” without having proper concern for the consequences of what may arise as a result of the virus.
President Donald Trump insists the American public is ready to see statewide coronavirus restrictions lifted, but recent polls suggest otherwise.
Sixty-eight percent of Americans worry their state governments are lifting COVID-19 restrictions too quickly, according to a poll by Pew Research Center. Pew polled nearly 11,000 U.S. adults in their survey, with the results showing a 2% increase in worried Americans from a poll it conducted in early April.
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.4 percentage points.
The findings are similar to a poll conducted by Navigator Research, which polled 10,000 people this week. Its findings show 60% of Americans say they worry social distancing will end too soon, “endangering the economy and putting American lives at risk.”
A third of Americans said they are concerned that “social distancing will go on too long and cause unnecessary damage to the economy and Americans’ livelihoods,” according to that same poll. Eight percent were not sure which concerns them more.
“People want to go back. You’re going to have a problem if you don’t,” Trump said Wednesday. “If you don’t do it, you’ve got a very big problem.”
Pew’s poll shows just 31% of people feel their states are not lifting restrictions quickly enough.
Similarly, The Economist and YouGov polled 1,500 Americans earlier this month and determined 11% of adults feel it’s safe to end social distancing measures and reopen businesses as normal. Seventy-five percent of people polled felt it was very or somewhat likely that reopened states will see an increase in coronavirus cases. (source)
While public safety can be turned into a political matter, it must never be made to be about politics, but about the preservation of human life.
If so many people are concerned about their safety, perhaps Trump and his administration could show more concern for this, since it is they who also potentially have the greatest chance to accidentally contract the illness.