'I'm pretty concerned' over states reopening, still in midst of first wave: Medical Expert

States like Georgia and California are beginning efforts to reopen, but some medical experts are concerned that it's too soon. Dr. Anand Parekh, Bipartisan Policy Center Chief Medical Advisor joins Yahoo Finance to discuss.

Video Transcript

- And as the number of cases and deaths continue to climb, a growing list of states as we know, are easing their restrictions on lockdowns. But should they be? Dr. Anand Parekh is the chief medical advisor at the Bipartisan Policy Center, and a former deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Dr. Perekh, you've become a regular on our show. Thanks again for being with us. How optimistic are you that we sort of have the upper hand on this virus now that so many states are starting to ease those lockdowns?

DR ANAND PAREKH: You know, Alexis I'm pretty concerned. You know, all through April, we were at a steady state about 30,000 new confirmed cases daily, 2,000 deaths daily. We're a little bit lower the first couple days of May. But we're still right in the midst of the first pandemic wave here in the United States.

And if you look at the gating criteria that the White House themselves put out a couple of weeks ago, very few states actually meet those gating criteria. And I think many experts actually think those gating criteria are not specific enough.

So for example, I think before any state moves forward, first they need to make sure they're testing enough. One metric for that is the percent of positive tests. If it's lower than 10%, means that you're probably testing that. The second is then, are the number of confirmed cases going down?

At least for a couple of weeks. And then third, is your health care system ready? And is your public health system ready? Is your health care system ready, under capacity, with the critical medical material and the personal protective equipment it needs? And is your public health system ready to do that expert detective work, that contact tracing, so when you identify and isolate a case, you can quickly do the contact tracing and quarantine contact?

So if you look at all those criteria, again Alexis, very few states meet those criteria. And that's where the concern springs from.

- Doctor, my question is, is corporate America ready? You know, I put a question to GM executives this morning on their social distancing. They're opening up their plants on May 18 again. Now, they're going to have-- I'm just reading off the email they sent to me. They're going to have employees wear face masks in the manufacturing plant.

They're spacing out shift start times. But do you think corporate America is well-prepared to bring workers back in a safe manner?

DR ANAND PAREKH: You know, Brian, there's so much that needs to be aligned here. Hand hygiene, respiratory etiquette, social distancing like you're-- like you're mentioning. Cloth-based face masks, staggered shifts. Essentially, the principle here is you want to reduce the contact rate as much as possible.

I think many employers are thinking of a magic number, and It's not necessarily data-driven, but about 20%. You don't want to start with anything more than 25%, in terms of capacity and people. But again, I think the principle is how do you reduce the contact rate.

And that is the key to safely opening up. And that's why I think a lot of states are first looking at sectors where there is a low risk of transmission. So you know, outdoors, construction, you know, pickup and curbside. You know, I think that-- a lot of sectors are starting there before they proceed to sort of retail, and manufacturing. Again, where the capacity needs to start at a pretty low level.

- And what about, doctor, I've been reading about possible mutations of this virus now revealing itself. What does that mean for us? And also, what does it mean for the possibility of a vaccine? Does it make things harder?

DR ANAND PAREKH: So viruses-- we know that all viruses are going to mutate. So I think one of the key questions here are what are these mutations actually do? What are the number of mutations? Where these mutations taking place? How do they impact key factors like the transmissibility of the virus, as well as the severity of the virus?

So Alexis, I think this is an area of really focused inquiry right now. I think we're learning more and more each day. Right now, we don't yet have evidence that this is going to affect vaccine development and manufacturing. But absolutely, I think this is something to keep an eye out on.

- All right. We're got to leave it there. Dr. Anand Parekh, thanks as always be safe. And we will talk to you soon I'm sure.

DR ANAND PAREKH: You as well, thank you.