We should learn from the experience of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, where the disease whipped through the crew even as just a few showed symptoms. This experience indicates that perhaps up to 60 percent of infected people can be asymptomatic. Yet President Trump’s plan proposes very limited testing of asymptotic Americans. The one exception is for “sentinel surveillance sites,” such as “locations that serve older individuals, lower-income Americans, racial minorities and Native Americans.”

Such an approach would not screen asymptomatic essential workers who interact with large numbers of people each day — workers in health care, grocery stores, and the food supply chain. The fact that the gating criteria for hospitals only requires a testing program “for at-risk healthcare workers” misses the point that all health care workers are sources of risk for spreading the virus, regardless of whether they are individually at risk. It would also miss myriad other cases that led to hot spots, such as the now infamous 40th birthday party in Connecticut and the Biogen conference in Boston.

Perhaps the most glaring blunder in these guidelines relates to how businesses are grouped for reopening. Six types of employers are singled out for when to open. One type is “large venues” that can open with strict physical distancing protocols in phase one. Surprisingly, large venues are defined as “sit-down dining, movie theater, sporting venues, places of worship.” But this is a heterogenous group that has little in common.

Indeed, many restaurants and places of worship are not large. Then again, restaurants can space tables widely, and in movie theaters and most places of worship it is possible to have every third seat occupied, without much movement by occupants — while at sporting events, people are present for much longer, and they move frequently to concession stands, restrooms and other sites (not to mention the repeated cheers and songs of fans that spray droplets far and wide).

We need to be particularly careful with these large gatherings. They are economically important but also pose substantial risk for explosive coronavirus dissemination. We have already seen examples: In China, it was the Lunar New Year celebrations; in New Orleans, it was Mardi Gras. But perhaps the most chilling example was that of Lombardy, Italy, where a 40,000-attendee soccer match is now being cited as a major factor behind the region’s outbreak and tsunami of deaths.

Finally, nothing is mentioned in the “Opening Up America Again” plan about how states should handle a resurgence. There is no guidance on defining a significant uptick in cases or how to respond. As Dr. Anthony Fauci mentioned in the press briefing announcing the plan, there may be instances where states must “pull back.” But what does pulling back entail? How will states know when to do this? There is no guidance.

The guidelines also task states with “independently” securing personal protective equipment and key equipment such as ventilators, despite the fact that the federal government has intervened calamitously in this supply chain.