THE PURPOSE

Everyone pines for their pre-pandemic routines and lives. They want to know how and when they can return to those familiar and well-worn paths for themselves, their families, and their communities, even if they accept that some changes are likely permanent. They are looking for a roadmap of how to go forward along with credible and understandable guidance on when it will be safe and how to reduce their risks.

While the situation in the country has been improving for several weeks, we are not at the next normal yet. More needs to be done before we can transition from an emergency with mitigation measures to the joys and carefree time of not having to worry about Covid.

The purpose of this report is to offer Americans guidance to, and lay out a roadmap for advancing to the next normal. Eliminating Covid is not a realistic goal. Instead, the nation must plan to mitigate its effects, prepare for variants, and build towards a next normal.

This report's authors envision that in the next normal, endemic Covid — or any other virus, circulating or novel — most likely does not constitute an emergency, necessitating the massive societal disruptions endured these past two years. This plan reimagines how America may live with Covid, which requires getting to and sustaining the next normal, and allows for the return of the routines and joys of everyday life.

THE TEAM

In order to develop a new roadmap that takes a comprehensive look at where we have been, where we are, and where we're going, we assembled a team made up of more than two dozen of the world's best epidemiologists, pharmacologists, virologists, immunologists, and policy experts. The team of 53 authors and contributors was shepherded by Vice Provost for Global Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania and former Biden Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board member Ezekiel J. Emanuel, and includes former officials from both Republican and Democratic administrations.

Read more about the authors of and contributors to this report.