Birx calls protests 'devastatingly worrisome'
White House coronavirus coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx is calling it “devastatingly worrisome” to see protesters across the U.S. not wear masks or practice social distancing as they demonstrate against stay-at-home orders.
Birx was responding to the hundreds of protesters who crowded the Michigan statehouse last week to push for a reopening of businesses. President Trump has encouraged people to “liberate” their states.
“It’s devastatingly worrisome to me personally, because if they go home and infect their grandmother or their grandfather ... they will feel guilty for the rest of our lives,” she said on “Fox News Sunday.” “So we need to protect each other at the same time we’re voicing our discontent.”
Protests took place in several states over the weekend, including in Minnesota, amid growing frustration over the economic impact from stay at home orders during the coronavirus outbreak.
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Meanwhile, the divide in the United States between those who want lockdowns to end and those who want to move more cautiously extended to Congress.
The Republican-majority Senate will reopen Monday in Washington. The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives is staying shuttered. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s decision to convene 100 senators gives President Trump, a Republican, the imagery he wants of America getting back to work, despite the risks.
The United States continues to see tens of thousands of new infections each day, with more than 1,400 new deaths reported Saturday.
Health experts warn that a second wave of infections could hit unless testing is expanded dramatically after lockdowns are eased. But pressure to reopen economies keeps building after the weeks-long shutdown of businesses worldwide plunged the global economy into its deepest slump since the 1930s and wiped out millions of jobs.