Let public health data guide path forward on COVID-19

The hasty model of reopening has failed to keep people safe

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A Mount Prospect woman who identified herself as “Sunshine” celebrates on Wednesday as she enters Rivers Casino in Des Plaines on the first day of reopening following an unprecedented three-month shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic,

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Chicago Sun-Times

Illinois was hit hard by the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, but we’ve been steadily flattening the curve ever since. New cases and hospitalizations have declined far enough for every region to reach phase four of the five-step “Restore Illinois” plan. We should feel proud of our response so far, and proceed into this next phase carefully, to protect the hard-won and easily reversible progress we have made.

Now that shelter-in-place orders have been lifted nationwide, it’s clear the hasty model of reopening has failed to keep people safe. New outbreaks are emerging across the country, with cases rising in over half the states. Even in Illinois, where the trends over the past two months have been positive, new infections and the rate of positive test results have both begun to slightly trend upward again.

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That’s why it’s critical that we let public health data and caution continue to guide our path forward. While Illinois has clearly made great progress, the risks remain high for many, including medical and other essential workers, older adults, residents of long-term care facilities, the immunocompromised and communities of color facing disproportionately high infection rates.

Several steps help manage the increase in risk that comes with reopening. First, we need to expand contact tracing, which helps prevent outbreaks from occurring. Gov. Pritzker announced plans to hire over 3,800 tracers and Cook County has pledged $40 million for the program. Second, increasing testing availability will help long-term care facilities, businesses and communities navigate our new normal. As we come into closer contact with each other on a daily basis, we’ll need to be able find out fast if we are compromised.

Third, widespread mask wearing is critical to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. Just as the vast majority of Illinoisans reacted admirably in our compliance with stay-at-home orders, we all have a role to play going forward by continuing to practice safe behavior including hand washing, social distancing, and covering our faces with masks.

We also need to be flexible. Reopening isn’t a one-way street that leads directly to a new normal. Illinois’ plan says plainly that health metrics, like infection rates, may require us to pause reopening or even return to a prior phase. In other countries that have successfully emerged from their lockdowns “reopening was not an on and off switch, it was a dial,” said Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University. For our state and our nation to be safe from COVID-19, we need to cultivate our willingness to move between levels of restrictions, guided by the latest epidemiological data.

Finally, we need to trust the public health experts. Officials should feel confident that if they see evidence going in the wrong direction, we can act quickly enough as a society to put a stop to the slide. For example long-term care facilities which have seen 53.9% of all COVID-19 deaths in Illinois must be a priority as we protect our most vulnerable. That means all of us must be ready and willing to do what’s necessary to protect ourselves and each other.

We’re all anxious to get back to our friends, our extended family and our lives. A great deal has already been sacrificed. But let’s not sacrifice more lives by making the critical error of ignoring the data. Paradoxically, being ready to pause is the only way forward. 

Abraham Scarr is director of Illinois PIRG. David Olsen is director, state affairs, of Alzheimer’s Association — Illinois Chapter. The organizations are members of Open Safe Illinois, a coalition supporting public health-driven decision making by Illinois officials.

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