Bucshon: We Need to Reopen the Economy

Bucshon: We Need to Reopen the Economy

To normal.

As the coronavirus pandemic spreads across the region?

There are more calls to reopen the economy.

That's certainly the case in indiana, kentucky and illinois.?

Joining me now is congressman?

Doctor larry buschon... sharing those concerns tonight.

Congressman you said last week that small businesses are in grave danger of closing their doors permanently at no fault of their own.

This also comes as more hoosiers died of covi?19 in the past week.

Right now?

Many people are divided on the issue?

But can there be both?

Can we protect hoosiers*and reopen the economy at the same time?

"absolutely we can.

We need to rely on data.

I think as most of your viewers know, i'm a doctor before i was in congress.

We need to rely on the data.

We need to make sure that if we're going to reopen the economy back up, we do it in a safe way.

The number one goal of the federal government as well as the state and local governments are to protect the people, and we want to make sure that we do this the right way.

With that said, we're not going to be able to just flip a switch and say coronavirus is gone, and so there is always going to be some risk.

So, even though i think that going forward, we can't flip a switch, we can do it in a way that protects most of our citizens, but also get our businesses back running and our economy back on track.

There's no right answer to that question, but we need to rely on the medical data and go from there," congressman buschon said.

Congressman?

You have a unique prospective as a lawmakeand as a doctor during this looming pandemic.

Are you concerned that reopening the economy could cause the pandemic to spread even further?

"yes.

There is always a concern you could get a bump if you open the economy too quickly.

I do think, and i've said this multiple times that we're going to have to continue to protect vulnerable populations like the elderly as well as people who are immun?

Suppressed and have other risk factors for having a severe covi?19 infection, we're probably going to have to protect those folks for months.

So, when you reopen the economy, you're not going to take away social distancing.

There's probably going to be mas?wearing, as well.

People are going to have to avoid large gatherings, and also protect our vulnerable population.

This isn't going to be flipping a switch.

I think we can do this in a peaceful fashion.

The trump administration has outlined that, and through using that guidance along with what they're doing and what they're seeing in our states, i think the governors can effectively do this."

Several lawmakers are echoing president trump's call to reopening the economy in phases.

Do you think this should be done across the board?

Or do you believe it should be based on a count?b?

County basis in indiana?

"i think it's going to be based on a count?b?county basis across the state and across the country.

Everywhere is different, and we've had different results from our social distancing and sta?a?homes in southern indiana than other counties.

Some places in rural america, they haven't had any cases at all.

So, i do think it will be regional probably or count?b?

County in our state and across the country."

Congressman?

Do you believe more could have been done to prevent the coronavirus from spreading here in the united states?

Or do you feel like you and other elected officials have done a good job handling this pandemic?

"i think there's a coupe things that happened.

First of all, we're finding out more and more the delay in information from the chinese about the severity of the spread in their own country.

"so, could there have been more done in retrospect?

A little monday morning quarterbacking?

Maybe, but the reality is that no one at the government level in either political party thought that this would turn into what it has.

I believe that even at the end of february, they were saying the risk is still very low, and it still is, but no one thought it would turn into this.

So, think we've done fairly well on our response.

The one thing we were really behind on is testing, and that has been a problem and gone through multiple administrations for decades, and i think we'll learning something from this.

Testing was not adequate, clearly, and it still isn't in many areas of the country.

We could have done things better there, but as far as restricting travel, allowing states to put in sta?a?

Home orders as it pertains to their state, i think we did a pretty good job, but there's always things you can do better and learn from."

Congressman?

If we see a spike in cases after reopening the economy in phases?

Would you ever consider closing those businesses again to keep it from spreading?

Or do you feel like there are currently enough resources to address this problem?

"well, i think that's possible.

We're in uncharted waters here.

What we want to do is make the best decisions as we can, so we don't see that happen.

Do we expect to see a few more cases of coronavirus if we reopen the economy?

Maybe, but the reality is, is that we if we continue to follow those social distancing guidelines, protecting our vulnerable populations, i think the risk of that would be low.

But, we need to leave that up to different regions of the country.

Indiana is different than new york, it's different than california, it's different than other regions of the country.

So, i think the combination of federal government working with the governors and local officials will make the best decisions possible.

Honestly, we're in a little bit of uncharted water here."

Congressman?

We appreciate your time and feedback tonight.

And please stay with 44news on air and online as we continue to watch this pandemic as a it grows across the region.

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