President Donald Trump said in a recent press conference that he wants to open the country to business as usual by Easter, despite health officials' warnings that this would not allow for enough time to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Medical ethicist Arthur Caplan told Boston Public Radio Wednesday that opening the nation up in the next few weeks would put people at risk.
"f you try to open business as usual back up too soon, you try to do that too quickly, you're going to be doing it in the middle of a pandemic, and it's going to be hard to say, 'you keep buying things and you head to work, just step over those bodies, don't worry about the dead people in the corner,'" said Caplan.
Caplan noted that even if the country were to compel its work force to return to their jobs, it wouldn't be business as usual, since other countries have also shut down their economies in favor of social distancing to stem the spread of the virus.
Art Caplan is the Drs. William F and Virginia Connolly Mitty Chair, and director of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center.
