Thanks. This, overall, parallels my views. The end of the pandemic, and the entry into endemicity, will be judged retrospectively, and shouldn't be declared in an interview or press briefing.
I'd much prefer to allow what's left of our public health infrastructure to lead on this, with cogent explanations (thank you, again) and reflection of well-designed and adequately powered research with decent reporting of results, rather than off-the-cuff, or even deep-held ideological beliefs about when we're going to be "done" with this virus.
I'm still waiting for the next VOC to rear its head, but others with loud public voice are declaring we're done. I noted the opinion piece in today's Washington Post by, theoretically, a trained PH doc, who was more than willing to declare the pandemic over. Personally, I prefer to continue to do the work on the public health arena and let history decide the ending date of the pandemic rather than trying to either wish it away, or bow to pressure from a public whose trust in the work the PH community has tried to diligently perform has been undermined by misplaced official and public statements.
Your mention of public health infrastructure is an important one. We'll continue to grapple with this virus on top of all the others that circulate regularly. We need to build and fund the infrastructure equipped to manage those threats.
I'm still alarmed at the loss of talent ca. 2017 at CDC. The outflow was significant. But over the last 3 years, losses in terms of personnel within the US PH infrastructure and funding are disturbing.
Thanks. This, overall, parallels my views. The end of the pandemic, and the entry into endemicity, will be judged retrospectively, and shouldn't be declared in an interview or press briefing.
I'd much prefer to allow what's left of our public health infrastructure to lead on this, with cogent explanations (thank you, again) and reflection of well-designed and adequately powered research with decent reporting of results, rather than off-the-cuff, or even deep-held ideological beliefs about when we're going to be "done" with this virus.
I'm still waiting for the next VOC to rear its head, but others with loud public voice are declaring we're done. I noted the opinion piece in today's Washington Post by, theoretically, a trained PH doc, who was more than willing to declare the pandemic over. Personally, I prefer to continue to do the work on the public health arena and let history decide the ending date of the pandemic rather than trying to either wish it away, or bow to pressure from a public whose trust in the work the PH community has tried to diligently perform has been undermined by misplaced official and public statements.
Your mention of public health infrastructure is an important one. We'll continue to grapple with this virus on top of all the others that circulate regularly. We need to build and fund the infrastructure equipped to manage those threats.
I would like to chat sometime about probabilistic ensemble forecasting of ID and epi models...
I'm still alarmed at the loss of talent ca. 2017 at CDC. The outflow was significant. But over the last 3 years, losses in terms of personnel within the US PH infrastructure and funding are disturbing.