Different Takes: It’s Time To Switch Our Focus To Covid Treatments; N95 Masks Don’t Work On Kids
Opinion writers delve into these covid and covid related topics.
Chicago Tribune:
We Should Pivot From Urging Vaccination To Making COVID-19 Medications Readily Available
Two years ago, “pandemic” became a household word. Today, the lethal contagion refuses to concede. The omicron wave in the U.S. peaked in mid-January and is beginning to decline, but the country still averages more than half a million new cases and more than 1,500 deaths every day, both of which are easily the highest totals in the world. We have focused intently on prevention, less so on treatment. Now it is imperative to devote greater national attention to reducing COVID-19 morbidity and mortality, beyond simply encouraging vaccination. Americans would benefit if politicians and health care professionals energetically promoted the new effective COVID-19 medications. Without this overdue pivot, thousands of lives may be lost unnecessarily this spring. (Cory Franklin and Robert A. Weinstein, 1/24)
Newsweek:
We're A Physician And Mathematician And A Data Scientist. N95s Won't Work For Kids
The Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) in the SF Bay Area where we live, announced on Tuesday that it was planning on "transitioning all students and staff" to KN95 respirators. If worn properly, such respirators filter 95 percent of particles the size of those that carry the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The BUSD has proposed this measure as a means to slow the spread of COVID-19 and keep schools open. These respirators would be required for the entire school day, including outdoors during gym and recess. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of respirators is vastly overestimated, and there is scant evidence that they stop community transmission. (Ram Duriseti and Benjamin Recht, 1/24)
The Atlantic:
Protect Kids From Your Faulty COVID Risk Assessments
Six years ago, on a Saturday afternoon, I got a call from a law-enforcement officer telling me that my husband had died in a bike wreck during a charity race for cancer research. I had a toddler and was pregnant with my second daughter at the time. Three days later, I spoke at a memorial for Jake. The eulogy wasn’t just a tribute to him, but a mission statement for me. I asked that my friends and family hold me accountable for living life unafraid. A traumatic loss meant that I was primed to see threats everywhere. But I knew that my big fears would make the lives of my children small if I couldn’t control them. They deserved more from me than that. (Mary Katharine Ham, 1/25)
Bloomberg:
China Should Prepare To Change Its Zero-Covid Policy
More than two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, China is the last major nation pursuing a zero-tolerance strategy, seeking to extinguish outbreaks as soon as individual cases emerge. That policy looks increasingly unsustainable. Chinese leaders should prepare now for a change in course. (1/24)
CNN:
The Threat Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Poses To Covid-19 Vaccination Efforts
For many years, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been a leader of the anti-vaccination movement in the United States. And, for much of that time, he has been seen as an outlier. Even before the pandemic, several of his family members -- including Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the former lieutenant governor of Maryland and former US Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II -- had taken him to task for spreading "dangerous misinformation" about vaccines. Now Kennedy is one of the leaders of a movement that is encouraging Americans to risk their own health and even that of others, since those who are vaccinated can help reduce the risk of severe disease and help to limit the scope of the pandemic, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Kennedy, by virtue of his family name and the anti-vaxxer organization he leads -- the innocuously named Children's Health Defense Fund -- as well as his high profile on social media, is now one of the largest sources of vaccine disinformation in the United States. (Peter Bergen, 1/24)
The New York Times:
What Does It Mean To Be ‘Done With Covid’?
The desperate desire to get back to normal is understandable. What’s odd is seeing the absence of normality as a political betrayal instead of an epidemiological curveball. The reason things aren’t normal isn’t that power-mad public health officials went back on their promises. It’s because a new coronavirus variant emerged that overwhelmed hospitals and threw schools and many industries into chaos, and because not everyone has the luxury of being insouciant about infection. (Michelle Goldberg, 1/24)
Stat:
Learning From Covid-19 Requires A Modeling Renaissance
“Flatten the curve” was a rallying cry in early 2020 as Covid-19 began sweeping across the globe. Despite limited understanding of the virus and how it was transmitted, public health officials emphasized one point: reducing transmission was the surest way to deny Covid-19 the oxygen it needed to sustain itself. Top disease experts were quickly able to model and reasonably predict Covid-19’s early behavior. Within just two months of the first recorded infection in the U.S., public health officials had effectively offered Epidemiology 101 to a classroom of more than 325 million people. These models were powerful educational tools during a period of intense uncertainty, offering insight into how quickly the virus spreads, the likelihood of fatal infection, and what a cresting wave of cases could look like. (Amir Mokhtari, 1/25)
The Washington Post:
New Studies Show A Booster Dose Is Essential. Our Policies Should Change Accordingly
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a trio of studies on Friday that erase any doubt that boosters are needed for optimal protection against covid-19. When science changes, policy should adapt accordingly. In this case, the same national effort used to deploy initial vaccinations should now occur for boosters. (Leana S. Wen, 1/24)
