The National Coronavirus Recovery Commission, a project of the Heritage Foundation, will be releasing the recommendations of its experts in a report that aims to put meat on the bones of the administration’s plan announced last week.
The experts, several of whom are influential advisers to the White House, are calling for some businesses in counties with a low number of virus cases to open, but special precautions remain in place for vulnerable communities.
And, it backs urgings by top federal doctors and even Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, to move forward in a limited way even though there is no national, universal testing plan.
“State and local authorities, with material assistance from the federal government, especially the United States Public Health Service, should reject calls for universal testing of every American prior to loosening social distancing, and rather embrace targeted testing,” said the report from the Heritage commission, previewed for Secrets.
“We must not keep the economy shut down until universal serological testing is available,” it added, in a reference to test for virus antibodies.
The Heritage plan will add to the growing number of reports laying out blueprints for getting past the virus shutdown. It follows the release of its five-part outline announced earlier this month.
Currently, half the states are set to lift stay-at-home orders and business closings in two weeks.
Heritage President Kay Cole James is on Trump’s Great American Economic Revival committee, and White House coronavirus task force head Vice President Mike Pence has cited the think tank’s efforts to steer a safe reopening of the economy.
Before releasing its plan today, the commission will also hear from key influencers who are key players in its considerations. They include Jay Timmons, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, publisher Steve Forbes, Dr. Julie Louise Gerberding, of Merck, economists and Trump advisers Arthur B. Laffer and Stephen Moore, Johnny C. Taylor Jr., chief of the Society for Human Resource Management, Hillsdale College President Larry P. Arnn, and Robert Alt, president of the Buckeye Institute.
Below is the four-part Heritage plan for reopening some businesses, excerpted from the report:
- Businesses in counties with low incidences should be allowed to reopen. In some cases, it may be necessary to impose some limitations. For example, restaurants might have to limit the number of patrons they seat at any given time and staff might be required to wear masks and gloves; grocers may continue to take steps to ensure commonly touched items are kept clean. Healthy, low-risk (antibody positive, antigen negative) workers should be allowed to return to their jobs immediately. Vulnerable populations—the elderly and people with underlying medical conditions—should remain at home.
- These steps should be combined with steps to continue to protect the more vulnerable known to be at special risk for contracting the disease—the elderly, those in nursing homes, those who have pre-existing conditions. Businesses and other gathering places should be cleaned appropriately. Hand sanitizer and masks, where appropriate, should be made available.
- Individuals who develop identifiable symptoms should immediately notify their employer, remove themselves from the workplace, and self-isolate. These individuals and those who interacted with them should be medically evaluated and tested: if “negative” they should repeat testing in 48 hours, and if negative may return to work; if “positive” they should follow latest guidance before returning to work.
- Governors should also focus on remaining populations unable to return to work, including individuals who do not feel comfortable returning to work but otherwise can be offered an antibody and an antigen test, and offered the opportunity to return to work.
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