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To cope with pandemic, and eventually, endemic SARS-CoV-2 and to respond to future public health threats requires deploying real-time information systems, a pub

To cope with pandemic, and eventually, endemic SARS-CoV-2 and to respond to future public health threats requires deploying real-time information systems, a public health implementation workforce, flexible health systems, trust in government and public health institutions, and belief in the value of collective action for public good. I agree with all that. Now - can we have paid sick leave and workers rights, so that someone who is COVID-positive can stay home and cure their infection instead of having themselves drag back to work after five days? The paper suggests data infrastructure. How about quarantine infrastructure? How about lower housing prices and better salaries so that only one parent has to work and schools don't have to be in session at a time of high COVID incidence? We can't even have access to proper testing - everyone remembers Jen Psaki pulling a smirk when a reporter asked why the government can't send tests to every citizen. Now we are promised a website where you can order two tests per adult. And real soon you can even get reimbursed for tests that you bought yourself, if you could get any. Sorry, trust in government is lost. Maybe it can be rebuilt, but it'll take two generations, by which time everyone who is susceptible to COVID has died of it and humanity has evolved to coexist with the virus. We are screwed.

whoomp12342 5y ago
what about someone whose kids are sick with covid? make sure that is included.
luckyscs 5y ago
I mean my government got out a novel vaccine in a year and distributed 3 to four doses to those who have wanted it. I'm impressed. Ask any other entity in the world to accomplish that...
- n4r9 5y ago
  The US, UK and Germany all did this,I believe? With Cuba not far behind (theirs was approved July 2019).
  - luckyscs 5y ago
    They are all impressive entities and I have high levels of trust for all of them in comparison to all the other institutions of the world and my own lone abilities.
jerlam 5y ago
I don't know how a strategy that involves "change the majority of people's minds about government" and "change the heavily entrenched 11 trillion dollar health care industry" is a realistic one.
remarkEon 5y ago
One of the more bizarre aspects of this whole ordeal, to me at least, is that at this point in the pandemic the government in the US is still only talking about vaccines, masking, and social distancing. Why? Are there not therapeutics out there (there are) that limit severity and reduce duration? Half of my friends have gone from a feeling of relief once they got their booster to a feeling of abject terror when they realized you can still get Omicron despite being boosted. Trying to pretend that we're going to vaccinate our way out of this is nuts, it's just whak-a-mole. Why are treatments for once you get it - and we're all going to get it - not a thing? I don't really want a national strategy written by "the experts" for life with Covid. Everyone remember when all of the restrictions that we endured because of 9/11 were "temporary" while we addressed the "emergency" of Islamic terrorism? 20 years later and I still have to take my shoes off at the airport, and get occasionally gently caressed by a low level federal employee to get on an airplane. With that in mind ... >How about quarantine infrastructure? Yeah no thanks, man.
- HarryHirsch 5y ago
  You need to take therapeutics early enough to make any difference, ideally as soon as you test positive. By the time you reach inflammatory stage and are admitted to hospital it's too late. But the way we are doing right now, the testing infrastructure is completely overwhelmed. Tried buying a kit recently? Around here they are all sold out! We need quarantine. Here's what I don't get: when AIDS came, everyone got used to condoms very quickly, and all the gay sex clubs closed down. Why can't we change our attitude today as the homosexuals did back then?
  - remarkEon 5y ago
    I mean, I suppose I agree with you that the government and our elites' management of it and the pandemic has been gawd awful, and particularly awful over the last ~6-9 months. What I don't understand about your point is that you're on the one hand saying "they can't even mass produce tests via the Defense Production Act and put them in the mail" and then on the other saying "government managed quarantine is a good idea".
  - ericd 5y ago

whoomp12342 5y ago

what about someone whose kids are sick with covid? make sure that is included.

luckyscs 5y ago

I mean my government got out a novel vaccine in a year and distributed 3 to four doses to those who have wanted it. I'm impressed. Ask any other entity in the world to accomplish that...

n4r9 5y ago
The US, UK and Germany all did this,I believe? With Cuba not far behind (theirs was approved July 2019).
- luckyscs 5y ago
  They are all impressive entities and I have high levels of trust for all of them in comparison to all the other institutions of the world and my own lone abilities.

jerlam 5y ago

I don't know how a strategy that involves "change the majority of people's minds about government" and "change the heavily entrenched 11 trillion dollar health care industry" is a realistic one.

remarkEon 5y ago

One of the more bizarre aspects of this whole ordeal, to me at least, is that at this point in the pandemic the government in the US is still only talking about vaccines, masking, and social distancing. Why? Are there not therapeutics out there (there are) that limit severity and reduce duration? Half of my friends have gone from a feeling of relief once they got their booster to a feeling of abject terror when they realized you can still get Omicron despite being boosted. Trying to pretend that we're going to vaccinate our way out of this is nuts, it's just whak-a-mole. Why are treatments for once you get it - and we're all going to get it - not a thing? I don't really want a national strategy written by "the experts" for life with Covid. Everyone remember when all of the restrictions that we endured because of 9/11 were "temporary" while we addressed the "emergency" of Islamic terrorism? 20 years later and I still have to take my shoes off at the airport, and get occasionally gently caressed by a low level federal employee to get on an airplane. With that in mind ... >How about quarantine infrastructure? Yeah no thanks, man.

HarryHirsch 5y ago
You need to take therapeutics early enough to make any difference, ideally as soon as you test positive. By the time you reach inflammatory stage and are admitted to hospital it's too late. But the way we are doing right now, the testing infrastructure is completely overwhelmed. Tried buying a kit recently? Around here they are all sold out! We need quarantine. Here's what I don't get: when AIDS came, everyone got used to condoms very quickly, and all the gay sex clubs closed down. Why can't we change our attitude today as the homosexuals did back then?
- remarkEon 5y ago
  I mean, I suppose I agree with you that the government and our elites' management of it and the pandemic has been gawd awful, and particularly awful over the last ~6-9 months. What I don't understand about your point is that you're on the one hand saying "they can't even mass produce tests via the Defense Production Act and put them in the mail" and then on the other saying "government managed quarantine is a good idea".
- ericd 5y ago