What Will It Take to Re-Open the American Economy Safely? - An Online Convening

Less than two months into the COVID-19 quarantine, many states are beginning to reopen, even as deaths and caseloads nationally continue to rise. The ability to test and trace infections has improved over the last month and Congress has recently appropriated $25 billion to scale up testing. But capabilities to test and trace remain far below levels that public health experts and epidemiologists have suggested would be necessary to safely reopen the economy.

So how are we doing? What will it take to scale test and trace capabilities to levels consistent with a safe reopening? What is the likely trajectory of the pandemic should we reopen major sectors of the US economy while failing to do so? What are the key unknowns, in terms of infection rates, transmissibility, social adaptations, evolving treatments, and immunity, that may determine the consequences of reopening without sufficient testing and tracing capabilities?

In this webinar, we'll hear from authors of the recently released Roadmap to Pandemic Resilience, including lead author and Harvard University's Edmund J. Safra Center for Ethics Director Danielle Allen, New American Foundation CEO Anne-Marie Slaughter, New York Magazine Deputy Editor David Wallace-Wells, and Breakthrough Institute Executive Director Ted Nordhaus.

This webinar is organized by the Breakthrough Institute, an environmental research center that co-authored the report. The Breakthrough Institute identifies technological solutions to environmental problems like climate change, and believes that economic prosperity — especially the kind being disrupted by the pandemic — is a precondition to environmental stewardship and sustainability.

Space is Limited. Hope you'll join us.