Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness

June 12, 2020

Rationing Social Contact during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Transmission Risk and Social Benefits of US Locations

Category:

Topic:

  • Benzell et al. ranked the relative transmission reduction benefit and social costs (including employment costs) of closing 26 categories of public spaces in the US. The authors concluded that banks, dentists, colleges, places of worship, and auto repair shops should be opened before gyms andcafes. Among stores, they found that electronics and furniture stores should be opened before liquor and tobacco stores.  
  • Banks, general merchandise stores, grocery stores, dentists, and colleges and universities had disproportionately high economic and consumer importance for their level of risk. Cafes, hardware stores, museums, amusement parks, book stores, liquor and tobacco stores, gyms, and sporting goods stores had disproportionately low importance for their level of risk. 

Benzell et al. (June 10, 2020). Rationing Social Contact during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Transmission Risk and Social Benefits of US Locations. PNAS. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2008025117