Lindsey Graham Urges Trump Admin. to Maintain Stringent Social Distancing Guidelines
Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) on Monday pushed back on calls to ease some of the restrictions imposed during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic after President Trump hinted that he’s considering scaling back some restrictions.
“Doctors are saying that we should be doing more to contain now, not less,” Graham told CNN. “There is no way for the economy to operate with hospitals overflowing. We can’t have functioning economy with a widespread virus.”
Graham wrote on Twitter on Monday morning, “President Trump’s best decision was stopping travel from China early on. I hope we will not undercut that decision by suggesting we back off aggressive containment policies within the United States.”
President Trump on Monday fueled speculation that he would try to ease Centers for Disease Control and Prevention measures recommending stringent social distancing until the end of March, retweeting a number of Twitter accounts suggesting that he reevaluate the measures this coming week.
“WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF,” Trump wrote on Twitter on Sunday night. “AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!”
The decision of when and how to ease lockdown and other quarantine measures is being considered on both sides of the political aisle. New York governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday told reporters he was considering how to restart sectors of the economy without contributing to a new outbreak of coronavirus.
“How do you re-start or transition to a restart of the economy, and how do you dovetail that with a public health strategy?” Cuomo said.
