Futurity

When will social distancing end? It may be a while

A new report suggests a plan for getting through the COVID-19 pandemic and opening things up again. It looks like a long road ahead, experts warn.
A woman walks over a white and blue tiled floor while wearing a face mask and carrying a purse

A new report suggests how to adapt our public health strategy and milestones for deciding when and how officials should relax physical distancing measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re going to have a tough April. May will also be tough. After that, hopefully we’ll see things loosen up.”

Crystal Watson, a health security expert, is one of the coauthors of the report, along with her colleague Caitlin Rivers, both senior scholars at the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins University. The American Enterprise Institute collaborated on the report.

Watson’s research focuses on public health risk assessment, crisis and risk-based decision making, public health and health care preparedness and response, biodefense, and emerging infectious disease preparedness and response.

Here, Watson, also an assistant professor in the environmental health and engineering department at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, explains the report and how the weeks and months ahead might unfold:

The post When will social distancing end? It may be a while appeared first on Futurity.

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