My dentist’s first question to me, knowing I’m an epidemiologist, was “when will this all be over”. Was super unsatisfying for us both for me to have to answer, “whenever we want, if the government would just take concerted & decisive action”

Of course this doesnt mean COVID could be over tomorrow, but if we take coordinated, decisive, and evidence-based action NOW, we could think about making Thanksgiving or Christmas plans. If we dont, then this is what our life looks like for the foreseeable future.

What should we be doing? I have lots of ideas but you’re not going to like them. They all boil down to coordinating federally & collective action. You’re going to say I’m a socialist. I probably am. I’m Canadian.

Ready?

Shut down non-essential indoors activities again & halt interstate travel until all the following are in place:

Produce ludicrous amounts of N95 face masks & testing supplies. So much contact tracing. Safe quarantine & isolation sites. House the homeless....

Federal paid sick leave & paid *quarantine* leave for all employees. Universal basic income for the duration of the pandemic. Universal Medicare eligibility, or similar. Federal eviction freezes. Easy-to-apply-for subsidies for electricity, water, internet, & other utilities....

Support for small businesses to ensure they can stay closed until it’s safe to open. Funding for development & approval of super rapid & cheap at home COVID tests. Job training programs to develop a pandemic-appropriate workforce....

Laptops for every school kid & teacher & WAY more funding for schools. Laptops for all retrained pandemic workers. Coordinated distribution of food from farmers to people with food insecurity & organized hot meal delivery to seniors, school kids, unemployed, quarantined/sick....

High-quality, understandable, enjoyable, and CORRECT federally-funded edutainment programming to explain the fundamentals of epidemiology and public health to everyone. Detailed safe operating plans for every industry & oversight to ensure best practices are followed.....

....that’s not everything but I’ve been busy all day & it’s time for dinner.

I know many of you wont like some or all of this. That’s not my problem because I’m not in charge of anything. So, don’t @ me. Or do. IDC, I’m gonna mute this thread now.

Since this whole thread is still blowing up, consider dropping some pennies into the hat at the crowdfunding site for my COVID research & outreach group.

All funds go to support our work to help end this pandemic.

https://crowdfunding.bu.edu/campaigns/epidemiologic-covid-19-response-corps#/