Re-opening after coronavirus is a 'much bigger' job than most Americans realize, Harvard study finds
“What we need to do is much bigger than most people realize,” wrote the authors of the study conducted by Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics that was released this week. “We need to massively scale-up testing, contact tracing, isolation, and quarantine — together with providing the resources to make these possible for all individuals.”
While social distancing has proven effective in “flattening the curve” of new infections, new cases are showing up at a rate of around 4,000 a day after peaking above 10,000 on several days in the last three weeks. The report recommends that the federal government establish a “Pandemic Testing Board” that would be tasked with securing and deploying COVID-19 tests. State or federal agencies would need to hire up 100,000 workers to carry out contact tracing. Peer-to-peer smartphone apps would trace the movement of infected citizens, under the supervision of a government board meant to guarantee privacy.
While more than 20 million Americans have been put out of work during the pandemic, 40 percent of the U.S. economy is deemed “essential,” and is therefore still operating. This category includes sectors like food production and distribution, medical workers, police and firefighters. But the country has been slow to implement testing for them and as a result they could still be spreading the disease.
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