And we're going to have to think about how do we test that, not in a laboratory, but actually I mean, are we going to expose people to live virus? There are people who have suggested that. Are we going to give it to healthcare workers who are on the front-lines, and then look to see if any of them get infected?
There's a lot of work ahead, because if we don't build a vaccine that's safe and effective, but certainly safe, people aren't going to want to take it. And so, that is really an incredibly important part of this, moving forward. And then, of course, there is a ramp-up of how do you then produce billions of doses of the vaccine in a way that, again, people are going to feel confident healthy people are going to feel confident giving it to their kids, giving it to themselves, giving to their parents. Those are going to be really important issues.
AMY GOODMAN: Very quick
DR. ASHISH JHA: Again, I have no I think we can get there, sorry, but it's going to be work. Please.
AMY GOODMAN: Very quickly, you're talking to us from Harvard, one of many schools in this country. It has more chance of surviving than a number of other schools if they don't reopen. But can you talk about the decisions? You have places like Northeastern, that's saying, "We're open, starting in the fall." You have places like Notre Dame that are saying, "We're going to open early and then end by Thanksgiving," also University of Alabama, "because we expect there to be a surge in December, and so we want the kids out by Thanksgiving, and then they won't come back for a while." Can you talk about the decision? And not only colleges, of course, high schools, elementary schools. What must go into this decision? And what do you think should happen?
DR. ASHISH JHA: Yeah. As you might imagine, this is not just a conversation I'm having with lots of public health people and education officials, but also at home with the kids about what's going to happen in the fall.
The way I think about this is there's going what is likely to happen is a lot of variations. Some schools are going to open, some schools are going to stay online. What should drive the decision-making? Well, one is how much community transmission is happening in that place at that time. So, if we're thinking about Harvard University, for instance, how much community transmission is happening in eastern Massachusetts? If a lot of people are getting infected and sick, it's going to be very hard for Harvard or any university in eastern Massachusetts to open.
Second is around availability of testing. I think you have to have a strategy where you're going to have to be able to test kids and staff and faculty on an ongoing basis.
Third is you're going to have to do certain social distancing things. There are going to be no large classes. There should be no large classes. There should be if you're going to do sporting events, certainly not with any kind of spectators, and you have to really think about what sporting events can you justify and how do you do that.
So there's a lot of changes that are going to need to happen. I like the idea of starting early and trying to end early. I think most of us believe there will be a surge of cases in the fall. All the principles I just laid out need to happen for primary and secondary schools, as well, really rethinking things like cafeteria, rethinking things like sports. And if we do all of that, I believe there's a very, very good chance that we can open up schools, we can get kids back to school in the fall. It may not look like a normal fall, but if we can get through this fall and we have a vaccine early in 2021, we can get through this pandemic.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Dr. Ashish Jha, we want to thank you so much for being with us, professor of global health and director of Harvard University's Global Health Institute.
When we come back, can local journalism survive the pandemic? Tens of thousands of journalists have lost their jobs, been furloughed or received pay cuts as newsrooms continue to shrink or shutter. Stay with us.
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