Former Disney CEO and current Executive Chairman Bob Iger has commented in a KABC interview regarding his new position on California Governor Gavin Newsom’s new Economic Recovery Advisory Group.
What’s Happening:
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- Bob Iger, the executive chairman and chairman of the board of the Walt Disney Co., was announced on Friday as one of the members of a task force focused on reopening the state of California, which is officially in a recession thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Iger commented on his new assignment earlier today, referring to getting people back in the workplace:
- “Clearly, making people feel safe from getting the virus is the biggest obstacle and it’s clearly complicated. It’s not just about — as far as we know — social distancing. It’s about taking a number of steps, implementing a number of procedures to make sure that people feel safe.”
- Along with increased hygiene procedures, Iger added that “it’s likely that we’re going to need some mass testing, at scale, and some form of contact tracing as well so that we can identify people who have been exposed or people who have had the virus and may be of harm to others,” continuing that the initiatives are needed with the absence of therapeutic medicine or a vaccine which is months to a year away.
- At this time, Iger has not commented on the reopening of the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, which has been closed since March 14th and remains closed until further notice.
- Earlier, California Governor Gavin Nesom announced his Economic Recovery Advisory Group to help counter the state’s “Pandemic-induced recession.”
- The task force includes many notable government and business leaders from the Golden State, over 80 members chaired by Gavin Newsom and Tom Steyer. Members include Apple CEO Tim Cook and four former California governors, Pete Wilson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gray Davis and Jerry Brown.
- This announcement was in response to California’s new unemployment numbers, which top 3 million unemployment filings since March 12th putting the state above 5% unemployment for the first time since 1976.