Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
CDC Quietly Releases Its Most Detailed Guidelines On Reopening Schools, Businesses, Mass Transit
The Washington Post: CDC Releases Reopening Guidelines For Schools, Child-Care Centers, Restaurants, Mass Transit
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week laid out its detailed, delayed road map for reopening schools, child-care facilities, restaurants and mass transit, weeks after covid-weary states began opening on their own terms. The CDC cautioned that some institutions should stay closed for now and said reopening should be guided by coronavirus transmission rates. (Meckler and Weiner, 5/19)
The Hill: CDC Director Says US Ready To Reopen, Predicts Thousands More Contact Tracers
The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Tuesday that he believes the U.S. is ready to begin reopening, even as he acknowledged the need to invest further in the nation's public health infrastructure and expand contact tracing to avoid sustained outbreaks. "I want to clarify that the community-based transmission, the community-to-community transmission that overwhelmed the public health departments in late February, March, April, that's really coming down," Redfield said in an interview with Steve Clemons, author of The Hill's daily Coronavirus Report. (Samuels, 5/19)
Politico: CDC Releases Detailed Guidelines For Reopening
The document includes specific guidance for reopening child care centers, schools, businesses, restaurants and public transit. Among the additions is more detailed advice for mass transit that suggests encouraging social distancing by adding floor decals or colored tape to ensure people remain six feet apart. It also lays out an extensive blueprint for containing the disease at federal and state levels through contact tracing and monitoring for outbreaks — capabilities that large parts of the county still lack. (Cancryn, 5/20)
Politico: Trump’s Push To Reopen Schools And Day Care Gets Chilly Reception From Voters
A plurality of voters oppose President Donald Trump’s push for U.S. elementary and high schools to get back to business this fall, according to a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll that asked whether students should return to day care, schools and college campuses. Voters instead offer a bit of praise for online instruction, with a majority saying it's been at least somewhat effective at making up for months of class time lost to the coronavirus pandemic. (Perez, 5/19)
And in other news from the administration —
NPR: WH Coronavirus Coordinator Encouraged By Decline In New Cases In Most Of U.S.
White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said on Tuesday that she is encouraged by the latest data showing declines in new cases of the virus, hospitalizations and deaths across all but a few areas of the United States. Birx told a group of reporters at the White House that clinical, laboratory data and surveillance data from across the country shows that new hospitalizations have dropped by 50% in the last 30 days, and deaths continue to decrease week over week. (Ordonez, 5/19)
