Tune in to #RFBreakthrough, a new livestream discussion series featuring a panel of industry experts.
For #RFBreakthrough’s first episode, the experts dove into the National Covid-19 Testing & Tracing Plan to discuss the need for protocols that are being developed for asymptomatic rapid result screening tests in schools, businesses, and other institutions, along with faster and greater numbers of diagnostic tests to check results, which will improve contact tracing and suppress Covid-19.
This will cost over $75 billion in investments in the manufacturers and labs related to testing to produce the required types and amounts of tests but is a small price to pay to avoid a more permanent and complete economic lockdown. The plan also calls for a nationwide campaign to show the necessity of compliance with wearing masks, washing hands, and social distancing. The situation right now is a national tragedy and will only get worse with the flu season unless the country unites around a strategy that focuses on the common good.
The Rockefeller Foundation’s panel of Covid-19 experts:
Mara G. Aspinall
Co-Founder and Professor of Practice, Biomedical Diagnostics at Arizona State University
Eileen O’Connor
SVP of Communications, Policy and Advocacy, The Rockefeller Foundation
Dr. Jonathan Quick
Managing Director of Pandemic Response, Preparedness and Prevention, The Rockefeller Foundation and Author, The End of Epidemics
Paul Romer, PhD
Professor of Economics at New York University and co-recipient of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Economics
Dr. Rajiv J. Shah
President of The Rockefeller Foundation and former USAID Administrator
- Report
National Covid-19 Testing and Tracing Action Plan
We called in April for the nation to get to three million Covid-19 tests a week by July and to 30 million by October. We’re well on the way, at the 4.5 million now. But to beat this virus we need a massive national effort—backed by organizational heft and billions in new funding— to get […]Download PDF