Earlier this week, we talked about the need to re-open our economy here in Montana. We talked about the need to use a scalpel instead of a sledgehammer when managing our economy in the midst of the crisis. If we didn't re-open our economy- the hospitals will continue to get hit hard.

Then, on Monday afternoon we got the news: 600 hospital workers with Kalispell Regional Healthcare would be furloughed, with doctors and other executives also taking cuts to their salary.

All this got me thinking: we shut down our economy because we didn't want to overwhelm our hospitals here in Montana. Meanwhile, the models used to justify the shutdown were faulty, and have now been updated to show that they do not expect our hospitals to be overwhelmed by the coronavirus. And yet our hospitals are now being overwhelmed because of the economic shutdown. This all begs the question- if we shut down our economy because we didn't want to overwhelm our hospitals, should we now open up our economy so that we don't continue to overwhelm the hospitals?

 

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