A coronavirus recovery commission convened by the conservative Heritage Foundation said Monday that enhanced testing and contact tracing must be part of the plan to get America “back to normal” again.
The 17-member commission released a five-part plan for recovering both public health and the economy, saying a return to more normal business activity should be done at a regional level and must be based on “scientific data.”
“Americans want to ensure their families are kept safe and healthy,” said Commission Chairman Kay James, president of Heritage. “The commission agrees that it is critically important to build the American people’s confidence that we can safely return to some semblance of normal soon.”
She added, “The way to build that confidence is to adopt a phased approach that mitigates the spread of the coronavirus, vastly improves testing, expands our capabilities to quickly find treatments and possibly a cure, and ensures we are better prepared to confront future pandemics.”
The recommendations come as President Trump is convening an economic task force to make recommendations on when and how to reopen the economy. The president is hoping to ease some restrictions by May 1.
The members of the commission include former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, a physician; former Sen. George Allen of Virginia; John Allison IV, retired chairman and CEO of BB&T; the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference; and Frances F. Townsend, former homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush and executive vice president of the private equity firm MacAndrews and Forbes Holdings.
The commission held its first meeting on Thursday. It said returning to more normal business activity “would be done only after stabilizing the health care system, establishing enhanced testing, reporting, and contact tracing, and continuing to follow CDC guidelines on mitigation.”
It also recommended slowing the spread of the virus “while expanding testing, reporting, and contact tracing,” and following guidance on social distancing and other mitigation efforts “until new cases begin to decline for at least 14 days.”
The final three recommendations are to continue building the science, through new diagnostic tests and the introduction of proven vaccines; establish U.S. leadership in the global economic recovery; and reduce the risk of future pandemics by investing in national and state stockpiles, reforming supply chains, and developing strategies “to adjust resource capacity to meet the demands of crises,” among other steps.
“Good public health policy is good economic policy, and vice versa,” Mrs. James said. “If the economy fails, there will be severe, long-term health consequences; and if the health care system fails, there will be severe, long-term economic consequences. A nation decimated by the disease cannot have a functioning economy, and a catastrophic loss of jobs wreaks horrific damage on both mental and physical health.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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