Coronavirus Commission Highlights 15 Steps Individuals Can Take to Combat COVID-19, Bolster Recovery

Coronavirus Commission Highlights 15 Steps Individuals Can Take to Combat COVID-19, Bolster Recovery

Jul 27, 2020 2 min read

WASHINGTON—The National Coronavirus Recovery Commission released an executive summary of its final report with a list of 15 steps that Americans can take to ensure their personal well-being and bolster our country’s recovery.

A project of The Heritage Foundation, the National Coronavirus Recovery Commission developed nearly 300 specific recommendations for federal, state, and local governments, businesses, churches, charities, and community organizations to navigate America prudently toward recovery.

You can find the National Coronavirus Recovery Commission’s executive summary here.

Each of us can individually make an impact in the fight against COVID-19,” said Kay C. James, chairman of the National Coronavirus Recovery Commission. “Protecting our communities and our loved ones starts with steps we can take as individuals to stay healthy.

James added: “We are beginning to see the early signs of America’s recovery from this pandemic, but there’s more work to be done—to save lives and restore livelihoods. I remain hopeful that our nation will conquer this disease and that together, all Americans will emerge from this chapter in our history stronger than before.”

The commission has made more than 40,000 contacts with policymakers across the United States and 35 U.S. states adopted the commission’s top recommendations.

Today, the commission is announcing 15 steps that individuals can take to protect their personal health and help ensure America’s recovery.

  1. Pursue returning to work as soon as possible.
  2. Talk with employers about exploring flexible options that will allow employees who are at risk, those who have certain health or safety concerns, or parents and guardians who are unable to find child care because of school and day care closures to alter their work schedules and duties or to work from home when possible.
  3. Avoid commuting on mass transit.
  4. Small-business owners should plan and revise their business operations so that they can operate in a re­duced capacity while remaining open in emergency situations.
  5. Contact a personal physician and self-isolate if iden­tifiable symptoms develop.
  6. Family members of people in nursing homes should ask what steps staff are taking to protect their loved ones, including whether additional cleaning, testing, contact tracing, and other mitigation steps are in place.
  7. Ask medical providers about telehealth options in or­der to interact together remotely.
  8. Pursue the full spectrum of health care services nec­essary to protect overall health.
  9. Ask medical providers how they make triage decisions and confirm that they base treatment decisions on a patient’s objective clinical state rather than other con­siderations like maximizing “life-years.”
  10. Pursue overall health through proactive healthy prac­tices, including the use of personal protective equipment.
  11. Parents should support school plans to reopen in the fall.
  12. Parents should consider the best approach to their children’s transportation needs.
  13. International travelers should take and record their temperature before traveling, obtain and bring health documentation indicating any virus testing and/or antibody results, and plan for additional time at a port of entry during both the departure and arriv­al process for health screening.
  14. Volunteer with your church or local community or­ganization.
  15. America’s freedom of speech and press, freedom of association, freedom of conscience and religion, and right to free assembly have enabled civil society to participate in disseminating information about the virus and to provide medical, material, and social as­sistance. Draft a letter to the editor of your local newspaper rais­ing ideas from the report.

The National Coronavirus Recovery Commission developed its recommendations with input from 17 commissioners who are top experts and thinkers from government, public health, disaster response and relief, academia and education, business, and the faith community. The commission’s work also includes ideas from hundreds of Americans across the country who submitted their comments and stories to the commission.

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