The finding, included in a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday, points to a significant challenge in managing a response to the pandemic. When the virus lodges in the upper respiratory tract, people may not show any symptoms for days, even as they may transmit the virus to others. A preliminary study in China of infected people who came to Chongqing from Wuhan showed that 18 percent were asymptomatic, including about a quarter of children and the elderly. This is not out of line with what is seen in cases of influenza, an endemic disease that returns over and over again, but the coronavirus is much more lethal. The fact that many people may be carrying the coronavirus and not yet feel its symptoms should give pause to everyone thinking about the months ahead.

President Trump has declared that people “want to return to work,” and he is eager to reopen the U.S. economy. He said this can happen soon while people maintain precautions such as social distancing. “We can do two things together.” But what if a colleague in the office or the worker on the assembly line is asymptomatic, carrying the virus and potentially shedding it? What if returning to normal reignites a virus explosion? How does anyone make sure that everyone by the water cooler is already recovered, or not infected?

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Going back to work too soon is reckless. More time is needed to break chains of transmission. But at some point, return is inevitable. Until a vaccine or drug therapy is found, tested and manufactured, getting back to normal will become a complex social, medical, economic and political problem. The planning should start now, while there is time. A vast increase in testing is mandatory. Hospital-bed capacity will be a major bottleneck and must be alleviated. We will need more ventilators and protective masks.

Today’s immediate crisis naturally is occupying the attention of the White House’s coronavirus task force. Mr. Trump should appoint one experienced person with overall authority to plan for and manage the next phase, which will take us into 2021 at the very least. That next phase cannot possibly begin in just more than two weeks, as Mr. Trump wishfully maintains. But even if we hunker down for longer, as China did, this stealthy virus could come roaring back if we do not make adequate preparations, beginning right now.

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