TAMPA, Fla. — We've seen a lot of back and forth on social media. Some people are happy to be back on the beach, but others worry reopening beaches was a bad idea.
So, 10News asked infectious disease experts their professional opinion. Was it too soon to reopen public beaches?
"I'm concerned that it might be too soon in general,” said Dr. John Sinnott. “If you look, our number of cases is still doubling every six weeks, but it's a balancing act I understand between trying to keep the economy alive and people alive."
Sinnott is the director of epidemiology at Tampa General and chairman of internal medicine at USF.
Although he's concerned, he says if there was a place we had to open, the beaches were the right choice.
"The sea air coming in dilutes the virus out, the sun kills the virus,” Sinnott said. “I think it's a perfect place to be.”
But there are still a couple of things people need to do to keep us from seeing a spike in cases.
“We have beautiful beaches, they have lots of open space and if people will maintain that physical distance we should be okay," Dr. Donna Petersen said.
Petersen is the dean of the College of Public Health at USF. She says the restrictions at some public beaches, only allowing walking, running biking, swimming, surfing and fishing don't make a difference unless people stay six feet away from each other.
“It doesn't change the basic guidance to maintain the physical distancing and wear face coverings if you are concerned you can't do that,” Peterson said.
Sinnott on the other hand feels Manatee County has the right idea by having no restrictions when it comes to bringing chairs and laying out on the beach.
“I can’t imagine what risk an umbrella or chairs or something like that is,” Sinnott said. “As a matter of fact, it might even be better because then that anchors you in one place and you're not wandering around other people.”
Sinnott and Peterson says it comes down to everyone taking the virus seriously.
"We can control this disease if we all operate in harmony and maintain that physical distancing,” Peterson said. “If we don't do this, then we are likely to have a second surge and then we are going to have to restrict all movement again, which I don't think anyone wants."
Sinnott say he’s actually more worried of the exposure in the grocery stores rather than the beaches.
Now, when it comes to the reopening of other businesses, the scientific opinion is it's too soon. These doctors recommend a slow phase in.
“You don’t want to give the impression that everything is okay, and everybody can go out,” Sinnott said.
“We know we need to reopen our societies, that has to happen,” Peterson said. “But can we do it in a way that does not result a resurgence of the spread of the virus?”
“It gets back to following that guidance of maintaining distancing, physical separation, face masking, hand washing, disinfecting of surfaces.”
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