How To Avoid Dropping The Ball Again: Prioritize Early Warnings, Don’t Hide Truth, Do Social Distancing Smarter
As the country's death toll and cases total climb, Stat talks to experts about ways to avoid bungling a pandemic response. “I’m still getting over my shock at how badly this was handled,” said epidemiologist Stephen Morse of Columbia University. “After all the work and all the exercises everyone did, it’s heartbreaking to see how badly the ball was dropped.”
Stat:
How We Can Avoid Screwing Up The Response To Covid-19 Again
Even as Americans fight (and even kill) over the country’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, there is no disagreement on one point: With 1.9 million cases and the death toll closing in on 110,000 as of June 5, for both economic and humanitarian reasons we absolutely cannot have a repeat of the tragedy that has unfolded since March. But with the current drop-off in cases, hospital admissions, and deaths likely to be followed sooner or later by local, regional, and possibly national resurgences, the implication is clear: If — or, more likely, when — those occur, we have to do better. (Begley and Branswell, 6/5)
Modern Healthcare:
HHS Eyes How Healthcare Can Prepare For Emergencies
The federal government sent out a request for information on data analysis and public-private partnerships that will better prepare the healthcare industry for emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic. HHS is inquiring how healthcare organizations have used data to quantify the impact of crises like COVID-19 on access, timeliness and quality as well as how they've established public-private partnerships. Comments are due by July 8. (Kacik, 6/4)
The Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Pass 108,000; India Reports Its Highest Daily Toll
The U.S. coronavirus death toll passed 108,000 while reported cases topped 1.8 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Cases world-wide passed 6.6 million, and deaths stood at more than 391,000. Experts say official totals likely understate the extent of the pandemic, in part because of differing testing and reporting standards. (6/5)
CNN:
US Coronavirus Deaths: Over 1,000 Reported In The Past 24 Hours
In a little over a week, Americans have gone from taking their first hesitant steps outside again to marching in tightly-packed crowds in cities all over the country. Any uncertainty about venturing out during a coronavirus pandemic has been seemingly cast aside to protest police brutality after watching the video of George Floyd pinned under an officer's knee in Minneapolis. They've chanted slogans and shouted Floyd's name, some without masks. During arrests, police have loaded them into vehicles and holding cells -- without social distancing. (Karimi, 6/5)
The New York Times:
Doctors Heavily Overprescribed Antibiotics Early In The Pandemic
The desperately ill patients who deluged the emergency room at Detroit Medical Center in March and April exhibited the telltale symptoms of the coronavirus: high fevers and infection-riddled lungs that left them gasping for air. With few treatment options, doctors turned to a familiar intervention: broad-spectrum antibiotics, the shot-in-the-dark medications often used against bacterial infections that cannot be immediately identified. They knew antibiotics are not effective against viruses, but they were desperate, and they feared the patients could be vulnerable to life-threatening secondary bacterial infections as well. (Jacobs, 6/4)
