Biden Covid advisor wants a full national lockdown 'like they did in New Zealand and Australia'

Dr. Michael Osterholm, a coronavirus advisor to presumed President-elect Joe Biden, is suggesting he lockdown the country once he takes office. Osterholm said on Wednesday that he believes a lockdown lasting four to six weeks may help lower Covid cases.

"If we did that, then we could lockdown for four-to-six weeks." Osterholm attests that lockdowns have worked elsewhere, "like they did in New Zealand and Australia."

Osterholm serves as director of the Center of Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, and he believes the country is headed for "covid hell," unless Biden declares a full lockdown.

According to CNBC, Osterholm said "We could pay for a package right now to cover all of the wages, lost wages for individual workers for losses to small companies to medium-sized companies or city, state, county governments. We could do all of that."

"We could really watch ourselves cruising into the vaccine availability in the first and second quarter of next year while bringing back the economy long before that," Osterholm said and alluded to the newly announced Pfizer vaccine which has promising insights.

Australia and New Zealand have had some of the most stringent lockdown measures on the planet, with citizens barely able to leave their homes. Police have been used to enforce the measures, including the arrest of a pregnant mother who had posted her opposition to the lockdowns on Facebook.