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The U.S. has just reached 100,000 deaths from #covid19. What have we learned? A thread of 10 lessons:
1. This is an extremely contagious respiratory illness that spreads rapidly from person-to-person. Containment is very hard.
2. But it can be done. South Korea, New Zealand, Germany & many others have been able to reduce covid-19 infections to low enough levels that they can identify and rein in new infections. It takes strong, consistent & clear national leadership.
3. We were working to get to containment in the U.S. Social distancing worked here too. Americans should be proud of what we did to "flatten the curve". https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/15/hospitals-are-overwhelmed-because-coronavirus-heres-how-help/
4. Unfortunately, we gave up too soon. We reopened without hitting key metrics. We didn't use the time to ramp public health infrastructure. As a result, we gave up trying to contain the virus & instead have switched to strategy of harm reduction.
5. There are still measures we can take to reduce pain & suffering. Hospitals need to prepare for a surge. The federal government urgently needs a national, coordinated strategy to increase testing, tracing & isolation capacity.
6. Speaking of which, testing is absolutely essential. We need to stop debating whether widespread testing is needed, and get to work on making it happen--it's critical to reopening safely. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/22/7-things-administration-is-getting-wrong-about-testing/
7. There is hope for a vaccine and some promising treatments, but for the time being, we need to come to terms that we will be living with #covid19. We can't eliminate risk entirely, but we can reduce it. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/21/four-concepts-assess-your-personal-risk-us-reopens/
8. We are still finding out a lot about #covid19: how it affects blood vessels with inflammatory syndrome in children & strokes in healthy adults. There are many unanswered Qs, like: Does infection confer immunity? What are the long-term impacts on those who have recovered?
9. #covid19 is unmasking underlying health disparities & ongoing disinvestment in public health. We need to address the urgent problems like access to tests, affordability of healthcare, & equity in treatment, but there must be continued impetus to address the root causes.
10. We pay a price when we ignore science. A public health crisis requires public health to be at the forefront. And we've said this from the beginning but it needs to continue to be emphasized: our individual actions affect everyone. We are truly in this together.
