In sum…

  1. Vaccines will take 6–12 months to roll out to cover bulk of U.S. population. Healthy kids, including college age, will be toward/at the end of that roll-out. The timeframe could be longer depending on mRNA manufacturing scaling, and Astra Zeneca and Sanofi vaccine progress.
  2. We’ll need social distancing, mask-wearing, and most critically, scaled #FFAST testing throughout 2021.
  3. School reopen → businesses reopening, pre ubiquitous vaccine. #FFAST testing will be a critical component of the Biden administration’s plan to open the majority of K-12 schools within 100 days.
  4. As #FFAST scales, enterprises will have economical options to add that layer of security to their own reopening plans — which we believe they will want as many, if not most, non-essential employees will be late on the vaccination priority list, too. Enterprises should start planning their 2021 reopening plans now, and assume their folks are not vaccinated until year-end.

At the Partnership, we continue to convene regional and national groups to accelerate reopening, including sessions this week with the incoming Administration.

As GWP Reopening Committee Chair, and Board Member Matt Kelly, CEO of JBG Smith, observed:

“I think we are all past ready for a return to in-person work, collaboration and togetherness. Our company culture is incredibly strong, and as well as everyone has adapted, we are at our best when we are able to collaborate and create together. It’s hard to innovate on Zoom, and it’s much harder to recreate spontaneity and creativity while working remotely. Finally, onboarding new members of the team and having sensitive conversations are vastly inferior in a virtual format.”

Check out our Inclusive Recovery clearinghouse for data, articles, and thought leadership on reopening. This week’s additions included:

GWP’s work across all its initiatives continues — as we work through reopening to inclusive recovery and inclusive growth, we hosted a webinar with key constituents and our colleagues at McKinsey, who are out with new work on racial equity:

According to the Federal Reserve, the typical Black American family has eight times less wealth than a white family. The racial wealth gap has profound consequences, both for Black families and for the US economy; our previous research revealed that it will cost the US economy between $1 trillion and $1.5 trillion in GDP output each year.

and on the future of remote work:

We published our initial Capital Region Rail Vision Report, in collaboration with a wide range of interested parties, detailing how we can create jobs and accelerate equity with a more seamless rail system in the coming years, presenting a major competitive opportunity for the Region. We appreciated this endorsement from the Richmond Times Editorial Board, too:

“The Capital Region from Richmond to Baltimore is the 3rd largest regional economy in the U.S. & the 7th largest in the world. A unified, regional rail system with Maryland & D.C. is an economic enabler worth pursuing.”

And, our Capital CoLAB work to broaden and deepen the pipeline of digital skills continued to accelerate. We’re on a path to engage 45,000 diverse learners across the Region in digital tech pathways. Read CoLAB’s 2020 Impact Report now.

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Have a safe and wonderful Holiday season.