The Evening: Reopening Guidelines, 22 Million Unemployed, Schooled on Deal and More

April 16, 2020

New Guidance for Reopening

The White House released new guidance this afternoon for states to reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic. The guidance doesn’t lay out a specific timeline for relaxing social distancing restrictions. It lists a set of criteria—such as testing and hospital capacity—for local leaders to use in making their decisions, as the Washington Post reports.

Meanwhile, as Politico reports , governors in California, New York, and other states are starting to roll out their own ideas.

Dive Deeper: “Find My Friends in a Pandemic: The Future of Contact Tracing in America,” by CSIS’s Anna Carroll and Samantha Stroman.

22 Million Americans Unemployed

More than 5.2 million workers were added on Thursday to the unemployment tally, bringing the total to a staggering 22 million in the past 4 weeks, as the NYT reports.

China’s Export Restrictions Strand Medical Goods U.S. Needs to Fight Coronavirus

New Chinese export restrictions have left American companies’ U.S.-bound face masks, test kits, and other medical equipment urgently needed to fight the coronavirus stranded, according to businesses and U.S. diplomatic memos, as the WSJ reports.

Climate Check

“We really are in uncharted territory when it comes to a dual health and economic crisis, and that requires creative ideas and bipartisan action," said Dan Reicher of Stanford's Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance in this week's episode of Energy 360.

On the Horizon

CSIS experts on ocean security and human rights explore how Covid-19 will shape the way the ocean connects and feeds the world—and affect the lives of the people who depend on it.

CSIS’s “On the Horizon” series offers insights into the more fundamental changes we might anticipate for our future social and economic world as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic.

CSIS Executive Education

We invite you to apply to Unpacking the Defense Enterprise, a a three-day live, online course exploring defense strategy, budgetary and technical issues, and future challenges and opportunities in the U.S. defense enterprise.

Video Shorts

Check out CSIS’s new series of video shorts: “Testify,” "What's Happening," "Preview," and “High Resolution.” And don’t forget to subscribe to the CSIS YouTube Channel!

In That Number

$597 Billion

The European Union is seeking to permanently eliminate tariffs on medical goods needed to respond to the Covid-19 health crisis, which could cover a range of products valued at about $597 billion per year.

Source: Bloomberg

Critical Quote

“You’re going to call your own shots.”

— President Donald Trump on a call today with governors

iDeas Lab

While the crisis in Venezuela worsens, criminal groups—including gangs, Colombian guerrilla groups, and colectivos (paramilitary groups)—are competing for control of the country’s valuable mineral resources in the Amazonas and Orinoco regions. A new CSIS brief explains why this issue matters for policymakers.

The Andreas C. Dracopoulos iDeas Lab at CSIS enhances our research with the latest in cutting-edge web technologies, design, and video.

Optics

(Photo credit: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images). A Washington, D.C. Fire Department employee at the Department's decontamination facility.

Recommended Reading

“How the Economy Will Look After the Coronavirus Pandemic,” a collection of short pieces by nine economists for Foreign Policy.

Online Events

Tomorrow, at 10:00 a.m., CSIS’s Global Food Security Program Project will convene a group of experts to discuss whether Covid-19 is leading us toward a food price crisis.

And, at 9:00 a.m., the Center for a New American Security will host a virtual roundtable with Andrea Gacki, director of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, and other experts to discuss humanitarian exemptions to U.S. sanctions policy in light of Covid-19.

Later, at 11:00 a.m., the Middle East Institue will host a panel discussion on the humanitarian implications of Covid-19 for refugees in the Middle East.

Video

CSIS’s ChinaPower Project convened a group of experts today to discuss the East Asian perspectives on intensifying U.S.-China strategic competition amid the Covid-19 pandemic and what long-term impacts it may have on regional and global politics. Watch the event here.

Podcasts

In the latest episode of the Coronavirus Crisis Update, Steve Morrison and I spoke with Dr. Christopher Murray, director of IHME, to discuss the “Murray Model,” what a rolling reopening of the economy would like, and which states may be ready to reopen.

Listen on Apple Podcasts & Spotify.

Smiles

I’ve been schooled! Last night on the heels of my post about the Grateful Dead’s July 4^th ’89 performance of “Deal” in Orchard Park, New York I was contacted by a learned, very senior Deadhead with serious credibility. He reminded me gently that context is everything and that when writing about “Deal” at Orchard Park, I needed to reference the Dead’s seminal performance of “Deal” at Barton Hall on Cornell’s campus in Ithaca, New York on May 8, 1977. Cornell ’77 is perhaps the single most important Grateful Dead performance in the band’s history. Entire books have been written about that night. Some believe (as I do) that it is the best rock concert in history.

So, of course the senior Deadhead was precisely right. I’d written about western New York being prime Dead Country and thus creating the environment for a spectacular rendition of “Deal.” We wouldn’t have had the Dead play such a spirited, sold out show on July 4 ^th 1989 at the Buffalo Bills stadium if Cornell ’77 hadn’t gone down 12 years prior.

Just listen to this perfect version of “Deal” from Barton Hall, Cornell, May 8, 1977, and you will know how much I’ve been schooled!