The Atlantic

Take the Shutdown Skeptics Seriously

This is not a straightforward battle between a pro-human and a pro-economy camp.
Source: LOGAN CYRUS / AFP / Getty

Should states ease pandemic restrictions or extend lockdowns and shelter-in-place orders into the summer? That question confronts leaders across the United States. President Trump says that “we have to get our country open.” And many governors are moving quickly in that direction.

Critics are dismayed. Citing forecasts that COVID-19 deaths could rise to 3,000 per day in June, they say that reopening without better defenses against infections is reckless. That assessment may well be correct. Many insist it is immoral, too. The columnist Amy Z. Quinn the Trump administration is “choosing money over lives.” In a CNN news analysis, Daniel

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