(CNN) - It's an outcome no one wants, but could become a "harsh reality": a second wave of shutdowns. Weeks after lifting stay-at-home orders, some states are seeing record numbers of hospitalizations from Covid-19 as thousands more Americans get infected every day. |
And the second wave of state shutdowns could be more damaging than the first.
"Because of quarantine fatigue, because of the economic effects of quarantine, another round of shutdowns might have even larger effects on businesses that may be on the edge of not being able to stay solvent," said Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.
The economic toll from one round of shutdowns has been staggering. More than 44 million people in the United States have filed for initial unemployment benefits since mid-March.
But the pandemic is far from over. More than 115,000 Americans have died from coronavirus, and hundreds more are dying from the virus every day.
"Covid's not taking a summer vacation," said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert and professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
"It's actually having new opportunities to spread."
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Murray said the "biggest and most difficult choice" states could face in the coming months is managing a potential second shutdown.
And the consequences of another shutdown would be wide-ranging, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.
"We can't shut down the economy again," Mnuchin told CNBC. "I think we've learned that if you shut down the economy, you're going to create more damage. And not just economic damage, but ... medical problems and everything else that get put on hold."
But the federal government hasn't been in control of shutdowns and reopenings. Those have been at the discretion of each state.
"If you run out of hospital beds, and you run out of ICU beds ... (states would) have to shut down," said Reiner.