RE OPEN ING AME RICA - Brookings Institution

RE OPEN ING AME RICA

How to Save Lives and Livelihoods

John R. Allen and Darrell M. West, Editors

TABLE

OF

CONPreface Report Authors

TENTS 1 01 The challenge of leadership William A. Galston

6 02 A review of metrics to help decisionmakers determine the proper pace of reopening Dany Bahar

11 03 The value of testing and modeling Ross A. Hammond

15 04 The view from Birmingham, Alabama Josh Carpenter

18 05 Racially equitable healthcare Rashawn Ray

55 13 How to reopen schools without exacerbating student inequalities Michael Hansen

60 14 Reimagining graduate education James Goldgeier

64 15 How division and vulnerability hamper our response Carol Graham and Sergio Pinto

69 16 Reforming government operations Elaine C. Kamarck

75 17 How to improve congressional oversight Sarah Binder

79 18 Implementing CARES honestly and effectively Norm Eisen and Victoria Bassetti

22 06 Creating a more equitable health system Stuart Butler

26 07 Three ways to preserve jobs Marcela Escobari and Ian Seyal

30 08 Low-wage workers have suffered badly from COVID-19 so policymakers should focus on equity Molly Kinder and Martha Ross

83 19 How AI and emerging technologies help and hurt us Darrell M. West

88 20 Reopening courts Russell Wheeler

92 21 Immediate domestic law enforcement priorities Vanda Felbab-Brown

35 09 We shouldn't reopen the economy without 97 22 The military never closed

paid sick and family leave

Michael E. O'Hanlon

Isabel V. Sawhill and Morgan Welch

39 10 Ways to redesign unemployment benefits Mallika Thomas

43 11 The restaurant sector must adapt and innovate to survive Tracy Hadden Loh and Annelies Goger

49 12 The "playbook" approach to safely reopening the economy Mark Muro

#COVIDREOPENING

PREFACE

COVID-19 has shut down businesses and plunged the economy into a condition not seen since the Great Depression. Throughout the pandemic, public health experts have emphasized the necessity of social distancing and "stay-at-home" rules in order to flatten the infection curve and bring down the number of hospitalizations and fatalities. But even with these directives, the pandemic's effects on government, businesses, and the general public have been dramatic in terms of public health, the economy, governance, and social well-being. In this publication, we analyze the U.S. domestic situation and discuss how to reopen America in ways that address fundamental problems. For the good of the United States and the safety of the global community, we present a number of ideas for protecting public health, restarting the overall economy, and promoting social well-being. Our scholars discuss how to preserve jobs, improve the social safety net, provide equitable healthcare, address the needs of vulnerable populations, reopen schools, deploy technology, and improve institutional capacity. Several individuals provided valuable help on this volume. Emily Horne and Andrea Risotto offered tremendous assistance in terms of project vision, communications, and outreach. Fred Dews copyedited the entire manuscript in a speedy fashion. Soren Messner-Zidell, Katie Merris, and Abigail Kaunda did a great job on the project's design and layout. Eric Abalahin efficiently handled the web production process. We also are grateful to the scholars and communications staff who worked hard to develop and present ideas on what to think about as the country reopens. Brookings is committed to quality, independence, and impact in all of its work. Our list of donors can be found at brookings.edu. Activities supported by our donors reflect this commitment and the analysis and recommendations are solely determined by the authors.

?The Brookings Institution, 2020. All Rights Reserved.

REPORT AUTHORS

Dany Bahar is a senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development program.

Victoria Bassetti is a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School.

Sarah Binder is a senior fellow in Governance Studies.

Stuart Butler is a senior fellow in Economic Studies.

Josh Carpenter is the head of economic development in Birmingham, Alabama.

Norm Eisen is a senior fellow in Governance Studies.

Marcela Escobari is a senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development program. The analysis in her essay is a product of the Workforce of the Future initiative, including Dhruv Gandhi, Carlos Daboin, Natalie Geismar, and Peter DeWan.

Vanda Felbab-Brown is a senior fellow with the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence in the Foreign Policy program.

William A. Galston is a senior fellow in Governance Studies and the holder of the Ezra K. Zilkha Chair.

Annelies Goger is a David M. Rubenstein fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program.

James Goldgeier is the Robert Bosch Senior Visiting Fellow in the Foreign Policy program and the former dean of the American University School of International Service.

Elaine C. Kamarck is a senior fellow in Governance Studies and founding director of the Center for Effective Public Management.

Molly Kinder is a David M. Rubenstein Fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program.

Tracy Loh is a fellow with the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Center for Transformative Placemaking in the Metropolitan Policy Program.

Mark Muro is a senior fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program.

Michael E. O'Hanlon is a senior fellow in and director of research of the Foreign Policy program, and he holds the Sydney Stein, Jr. Chair. He is codirector of the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence.

Sergio Pinto is a doctoral student at the University of Maryland.

Rashawn Ray is a David M. Rubenstein Fellow in Governance Studies.

Martha Ross is a fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program.

Isabel V. Sawhill is a senior fellow in Economic Studies.

Ian Seyal is a project manager and research analyst in the Global Economy and Development program.

Mallika Thomas is a David M. Rubenstein Fellow in Economic Studies.

Carol Graham is the Leo Pasvolsky Senior Fellow and director of research in the Global Economy and Development program.

Morgan Welch is a project coordinator for the Center on Children and Families in Economic Studies.

Ross A. Hammond is a senior fellow in Economic Studies and director of Center on Social Dynamics and Policy.

Michael Hansen is a senior fellow in Governance Studies, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy, and the holder of the Herman and George R. Brown Chair.

Darrell M. West is the vice president and director of Governance Studies and founding director of the Center for Technology Innovation. He holds the Douglas Dillon Chair.

Russell Wheeler is a visiting fellow in Governance Studies.

1

The challenge of leadership

WILLIAM A. GALSTON

When the COVID-19 pandemic erupted, some countries were reasonably well prepared to meet the challenge, but the United States was not. We lacked reserves of essential medical supplies, which had been drained during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic and had never been refilled. Much of our capacity to produce drugs and protective equipment had been outsourced to China, which restricted exports during its own pandemic. We failed to develop the testing systems other countries had created in response to SARS and MERS. Nor had we worked out a clear division of responsibilities between the federal government and the states and cities, or between the public and private sectors.

Many of our public institutions were unprepared as well. Years of underfunding and personnel cutbacks had weakened our public health infrastructure at every level of government. Agencies such as the Small Business Administration and the Internal Revenue Service, which bore the brunt of the initial response to COVID-19, were forced to function with antiquated information technology. Even the U.S. military, where contingency planning is ubiquitous, had difficulty coordinating the health security of its personnel with basic operational requirements.

For different reasons, much of the private healthcare system also was caught short. As the

sector consolidated, the pursuit of efficiency took priority over planning for resilience. Private hospitals saw reserves of medical supplies as unproductive costs, not reserves against catastrophe. Some large hospitals enjoyed a comfortable financial cushion while others in rural America and low-income urban areas were overwhelmed when loss-producing COVID-19 care drove out revenue-raising elective surgery.

When a 9/11-style commission is convened, as it should be, to examine the handling of this crisis and to draw lessons for the future, there will be ample time to determine why we were so unready for it. Right now, however, affixing blame for past mistakes is a counterproductive diversion from the essential task our leaders confront--to chart and implement a viable path to recovery.

A WICKED PROBLEM

The COVID-19 pandemic is what planning experts call a "wicked problem"--one that is difficult to solve because of radically incomplete information, rapidly changing requirements and multiple, sometimes contradictory objectives coupled with interdependent social complexities. Since the pandemic erupted, not surprisingly, leaders have struggled to strike a sustainable balance between public health and economic production, scientific facts and social psychology,

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download