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New Denver-Area COVID Restrictions Are Needed To 'Nudge People,' Dr. Dave Hnida Says

(CBS4) - Denver, Adams County and Arapahoe County have or are imposing new health restrictions because of a growing number of COVID-19 cases. CBS4 Medical Editor Dr. Dave Hnida spoke about the necessity of the changes this week, saying he believes the new guidelines are necessary.

"You really do need to nudge people and get them back into a place where they ... feel like they are able to take precautions, he said in an interview on CBSN Denver.

"We all have noticed that there are instances of the virus being driven by a little bit looser behavior. I think there are basically three groups we look at. The majority of us, we have coronavirus fatigue, we're sick of being afraid of getting sick."

Hnida said when people were seeing case counts going down, they ended up getting lax about precautions and getting together with other people, which leads to more cases.

"The second group is younger people," he said. "You look at younger people who think they are young and invicible but yet that group tends to wind up getting sick and can still get terrifically sick."

"Then there's the fact that this younger group can wind up spreading it to older, more vulnerable populations with the community."

Then there's the third group, which "basically consists of people who feel their personal liberties are more important than the personal liberties of everybody else in the community, or in the country for that matter."

"I think everyone needs to get on the train of recognizing that if we do want to open up the economy again, if we we do want to get businesses going, if we want restaurants to stay open, if we want people to be able to return to their jobs and stay at their jobs, if we want schools to reopen, if want to spend Thanksgiving together as families, now is the time we need to take action because we truly are at a fork in the road."

"We have a decision to make whether or not we can slow things or whether we're going to just let them run away. It actually has the potential to be a catastrophic wave, this third wave that we are right on the cusp of, when it comes to an explosion of the coronavirus."

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