Review: States in northeast (NY, NJ, MA, PA, CT, RI, DE) and west (CA, OR, WA) form regional collaborations on easing restrictions

Review: States in northeast (NY, NJ, MA, PA, CT, RI, DE) and west (CA, OR, WA) form regional collaborations on easing restrictions

This article describes the efforts to coordinate responses across multiple states to reopen their economies amid the Coronavirus outbreak.

Today, New York Governor Cuomo announced the formation of a council comprised of scientific, economic and political leaders from each of 7 northeastern states. The council is tasked with developing a plan in the coming weeks to coordinate the relaxing of restrictions and reopening of the economy across their jurisdictions. The governors of California, Oregon, and Washington have announced a similar plan.

Oregon Governor Jay Inslee described the western states’ pact as being guided by the following three principles:

  • Our residents’ health comes first
  • Health outcomes and science – not politics – will guide these decisions
  • Our states will only be effective by working together, as one

The Western governors, who released a joint statement today, elaborated as follows:

Health outcomes and science – not politics – will guide these decisions. Modifications to our states’ stay at home orders must be made based off our understanding of the total health impacts of COVID-19, including: the direct impact of the disease on our communities; the health impact of measures introduced to control the spread in communities—particularly felt by those already experiencing social disadvantage prior to COVID-19; and our health care systems’ ability to ensure care for those who may become sick with COVID-19 and other conditions. This effort will be guided by data. We need to see a decline in the rate of spread of the virus before large-scale reopening, and we will be working in coordination to identify the best metrics to guide this.

|2020-04-14T09:28:39-04:00April 13th, 2020|COVID-19 Literature|Comments Off on Review: States in northeast (NY, NJ, MA, PA, CT, RI, DE) and west (CA, OR, WA) form regional collaborations on easing restrictions

About the Author: Ross Silverman

Ross Silverman
Ross D. Silverman, JD, MPH, is Professor of Health Policy and Management at Indiana University Fairbanks School of Public Health and Professor of Public Health and Law at Indiana University McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis. He is a member of the IU Centers on Health Policy and Bioethics. His research focuses on public health and medical law, policy, and ethics, and law's impact on health outcomes and vulnerable populations. He also serves as Associate Editor on Legal Epidemiology for Public Health Reports, the official journal of the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General and the U.S. Public Health Service. His most recent Covid-19 publications include: "Ensuring Uptake of Vaccines Against SARS-CoV-2" in the New England Journal of Medicine (with MM Mello & SB Omer), and "Covid-19: control measures must be equitable and inclusive" in BMJ (with ZD Berger, NG Evans & AL Phelan)

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