THREAD: These are my semi-educated opinions since I'm not an epidemiologist or public health expert but I have been working in health policy and advocacy for almost 20 years. 1/18

On COVID - I've been working professionally on this public health-wise since the start - on the legislation, on the public communication effort and now the vaccine hesitancy piece. I've seen a lot of focus groups and polling data. Here's what I know: 2/18

1. Crushing a deadly, highly contagious virus takes a long time. Far longer than you think or expect. It will be with us for years. 3/18

2. Very few Americans alive today have ever been asked to do anything sustained & hard for long periods of time. We have no muscle in this and have to grow it. For the 4 years of WWII, not a single American ate butter. Sacrifice and cohesiveness are new to us and it's hard. 4/18

3. People in the US are still dying of COVID, over 600 yesterday. Depending on which one, the vaccine gives you between an 83%(ish) to 95%(ish) shield against this death. Good odds, but not anywhere near perfect. 5/18

4. Not a single child 15 or younger has this shield. 12-15 year olds are close and younger kids by the fall, but they don't have it yet. (I, for one, will be getting my kids vaccinated the literal second it is available). 6/18

5. By calling continued mask wearing "virtue signaling," we minimize why people wear masks. At the least, it's a comfort to people. At the most, it protects one's self and others, even with a vaccine. In the middle, wearing a mask is not hard, not even a little bit. 7/18

6. Those who have gotten vaccinated do have a "reward" (and what are we 5 and & need a reward to do the right thing, come on). The reward is being indoors with other vaccinated folks in smaller gatherings. 8/18

My kids hugged both sets of grandparents a month ago for the first time in a year and our parents each then stayed in our home. I cried watching it happen. That's a reward if I ever experienced one! 9/18

7. Go out, have fun, I would personally not go to a crowded bar inside, but that's just me. I take my kids to Target with masks, we eat at restaurants but choose only to do so outside. Slowly but surely back to normal but with modifications. 10/18

8. Learn to live with this fact - the virus has changed absolutely everything. There is and will be no going back. I saw the first job posting for a senior level role at a huge company in my industry listed as "remote work 50-100% of the week." 11/18

I can't tell you how momentous a change that is for establishment businesses that can do it. I, for one, love this new change. The point is, throughout human history, pandemics have wiped away old ways of doing things and new worlds have emerged. 12/18

The uncertainty gives me huge anxiety, no doubt about it, but that anxiety is here to stay, so start figuring it out for yourself. 13/18

9. It's a mask, this isn't hard. It's not like my French ancestors fighting in the resistance during the German occupation. Added bonus, it may even prevent you from getting a cold! 14/18

10. The vaccines are literally miracles and show what America can do when we do it together. At the start of WWII, production of an aircraft carrier took two years. At the end, we were doing it in six months. That's how you win...together, with hard work and sacrifice. 15/18

It's entirely possible we could have equally still been without a vaccine, but we're not. It's also only been widely available for three months(ish) if you really think about it. And again, only 600 million of 7 billion humans on the planet have received at least one shot. 16/18

Also, thank G-d we live in a country rich enough to literally spend whatever it takes to beat this pandemic. 17/18

11. E pluribus unum is our motto, "out of many, one." It's ok my friends, we can do this. 18/END