Ross: Australians have just what we need to reopen
May 18, 2020, 7:51 AM | Updated: 12:30 pm
A rainbow lorikeet parrot lands on a table as diners have lunch in Sydney, Australia. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
(AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
As states start to drift back to normal, businesses are having to deal with a confusing set of safety requirements that can vary from state to state, and sometimes county to county.
So I called up Dr. Erin Bromage at the University of Massachusetts, who teaches scientific communication — or how to accurately explain complicated stuff.
“I get my undergraduate students to go into a fourth grade classroom and give a talk on a scientific topic,” she told me. “If they can’t explain it to those kids, they can’t explain it to me.”
He also wrote that now-famous blog post clearly explaining how not to get COVID-19. It got 14 million views.
What American businesses need now, he says, is a clear explanation of how to reopen safely. Something like the government has done in his native Australia, where there’s an online tool called “Safe Workplaces.” You enter the type of business you’re in – restaurant, gym, hair salon.
“And you click on this and it gives you the best practices that we know of right now in order to get your store, your business, … back open.”
The advice is tailored to your business. And while we wait for clear guidelines here — and since the rules of biology are the same in Australia — there’s nothing to stop Americans from using it. Just search for “Safe Work Australia.”
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