I think it's really unfortunate that to prevent mask shortages the surgeon general and the CDC have materially mislead the public about the efficacy of masks.  The obvious way to phase out shutdowns would be to massively manufacture masks (even just surgical masks) and make wearing them in public mandatory for everyone.  There is significant evidence that population scale use of masks significantly lowers contagion for similar diseases and for sars-cov-2 in particular, and it would be a great way to reduce the unacceptable spike in additional hospitalizations a couple weeks after reducing distancing measures. In addition to the direct effect of reducing the spread, masks serve as a reminder of the risk (improving compliance with handwashing and distance keeping), discourage touching the face (for most people), and would be a visual identifier for idiots who are out without taking the pandemic seriously and whom should be avoided as a result. At this point, however, I think it would be politically impossible to go that route because it would require politicians to admit that they mislead the public, and it would require convincing the public to wear masks when many people now believe they don't work.