Harvard University's Edmond J. Center for Ethics has launched a research initiative to help answer the question looming on most people's minds: when will the coronavirus quarantines end?
Danielle Allen, director of the center, told Cheddar that ending quarantine will require a robust social effort involving potentially thousands of workers and brand new technology solutions.
In the past, best practices for a quarantine order included setting a deadline to protect individual rights and set expectations, but COVID-19 presented too many unknown variables for lawmakers to come out of the gate with a set date for letting people return to normal.
"It was absolutely reasonable in this case that people issued orders with indefinite duration," Allen said. "This disease is so new and has so many distinctive features that it has been very hard for people to completely master its shape, its parameters. We did sort of need that blunt instrument."
But more than a month since the first stay-at-home orders went into effect, there is widespread demand for more information about when to expect state and local quarantine orders to end.
"It's going to take massively scaling up testing, tracing, and supportive isolation," Allen said.
Testing is perhaps the most widely understood post-quarantine measure, but it's also one of the most logistically complicated. Governors are currently making the case that heavy federal support will be necessary to produce the supply of tests needed to cover the entire U.S.
Tracing presents challenges as well, but there are a number of available options to pull it off.
"Contact tracing is one of the oldest and most important tools in the public health toolkit," Allen said.
The old-fashioned way to handle tracing is to do it manually. Individual investigators interview positive cases about where they've been and who they've been in contact with over the last two weeks.
"Can you actually achieve that with people, with person power doing all that contact tracing, or do also you need tech support?" Allen said. "Right now, I think the jury is out."
She pointed to a proposal from Johns Hopkins University recommending that the federal government invest in 100,000 paid or volunteer contact tracers to spread out across the country.
On the technology side, Allen highlighted Bluetooth-based apps that would help you track interactions for rolling two-week periods. That way, if someone comes up positive, the people they contacted could be warned.
Lastly, shifting to supportive isolation would be a step down from current stay-at-home orders.
"[Supportive isolation] is when you're infected and then you stay home, but it means people who aren't infected don't have to stay home," she said.
Markets opened higher to kick off the week as investors continue to digest the better-than-expected jobs report, which showed 531,000 new jobs created in October. Ken Johnson, CFA, Investment Strategy Analyst joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to break down his early market insights.
Almost 2 years into the pandemic, supply chain woes continue to wreak havoc on our everyday lives.
From groceries to chip shortages, both consumers and retailers are feeling the strain with prices only climbing as a result. Data intelligence company Morning Consult is out with its U.S. Economic Outlook for November revealing just how much of a threat these hold-ups could pose to the greater economic recovery. John Leer, Chief Economist at Morning Consult joined Cheddar's Opening Bell.
After many years and at least two presidents hoping to overhaul America's infrastructure, congress finally came to an agreement. The House passed the bipartisan infrastructure bill late Friday, receiving thirteen republican votes but failing to earn votes from the six progressive squad members. Joseph Zeballos-Roig, Economics Reporter at Insider joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss the economic impact of the bill.
Jill and Carlo discuss the scenes of joy at American airports as borders reopen, another tool in the Covid toolbox, the latest in the Astroworld crowd crush tragedy and more.
Frank Lee, Managing Director at Miracle Mile Advisors, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he explains why markets are soaring after the Dow, S&P, Nasdaq, and the Russell 2000 all reached new record closes to begin the trading week.
The Biden Administration's mandate for COVID vaccinations by large employers has been put on hold by federal courts as GOP-led states and some businesses push back on the order's legality. Jonathan Adler, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University, joined Cheddar to discuss the legal challenges to implementing such mandates through OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration). "Certainly expanding vaccinations is a good thing, and as vaccination rates go up that's better for all of us," Adler said. "But there are some legal questions about whether or not it's appropriate to use a law about occupational safety and health as the means to do that."
The Biden administration is giving businesses a deadline to implement a vaccination mandate, saying companies can take until after the holiday season. Andew Noymer, Associate Professor of Population Health and Disease Prevention at the University of California, Irvine, joined Cheddar to discuss.
Jacob Rubashkin, reporter and analyst at Inside Elections, joined Cheddar to discuss Republicans' wins on election night and what they mean for Democrats going forward.
James Astill, Washington Bureau Chief at The Economist, joins Cheddar News to discuss the latest issue, 'ONE YEAR ON: The calamity facing Joe Biden and the Democrats.'
