Not a Choice – has to be both.
Measure success by ‘accident free days’ – remember?

The world is not a safe place – but we can take measures to maximize safety without losing productivity.

A return to any sort of reasonable economy requires a return of public optimism and a return to a level of health care security.

The best many companies can do today is point thermometers at foreheads of asymptomatic people. What is the definition of asymptomatic? The CDC tried to put out a set of guidelines which then got promptly castrated. There is no international coordination that allows for some framework to cooperate and when news cycles are quiet the US disconnects from the WHO or threatens trade wars with China.

But enough of the easy stuff – how do companies get back to work before a global vaccine is available. There is an interesting little company which is HIRING like crazy and does not feel the need for social distancing inside the work place. The company is called Curative and the story is told well here by the excellent Danny Fortson of the Times/UK at “Danny in the Valley” podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9yc3MuYWNhc3QuY29tL2Rhbm55aW50aGV2YWxsZXk/episode/NGU1YzkxZjktMjkwNC00NTRlLTgwNzItYzFlZjA2OWVhNDNl?ved=0CAkQzsICahcKEwjI8eLGwsDpAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQBA&hl=en-CR .

It helps that they are a rapid start up in the right place at the right time and happen to be working on a huge rollout of COVID-19 testing. The company is now doing about 1/4 of the testing for LA and is expanding into the rest of the country with an air force contract: https://dot.la/coronavirus-rapid-test-curative-los-angeles-2645906983.html?utm_campaign=post-teaser&utm_content=jye65akv.

But other than the interesting entrepreneurial tale the reason I am posting it is the description of how they hire and daily test every employee. Even with the way they do it it is still not 100% pandemic resistant but it is a solid process that allows them to operate inside a framework with a safety level that would be acceptable to any employee.

Meat packing plants in the midwest could learn a thing or two – for now they point thermometers at asymptomatic people and declare “you have no symptoms come on in”.