Tonya Lewis of Scientific American talks with Johns Hopkins health security expert Tom Inglesby as he discusses the need for widespread testing, protective equipment and face coverings
With much of the country grinding to a halt in a desperate attempt to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, many people are wondering when the U.S. will be able to “reopen.”
The American Enterprise Institute, a public policy think tank, recently released a report co-written by former U.S. Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb that offers a four-phase “road map to reopening.” The first phase—which the U.S. is currently in—involves slowing the spread of new infections with physical distancing measures, such as closing schools and having people work from home. In the second step, individual states can reopen when they have the capacity to identify, test and isolate most people with COVID-19 and their close contacts—but some distancing will still be required. In the third, remaining restrictions can be lifted when an effective therapy or vaccine becomes available or when data show widespread immunity. The final stage, after the current pandemic is over, will be to invest heavily in research and health care to prepare for the next one.
Tom Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health—and an expert on pandemic preparedness—provided input for the report and helped to review it. Scientific American spoke with Inglesby about some of the most important criteria the country must meet before it can reopen. These include consistent declines in new cases, widespread testing and case tracking, adequate supplies of protective gear for health care workers and the use of nonmedical masks by the public.