How the world can avoid screwing up the response to Covid-19 again

https://www.statnews.com/2020/06/05/how-world-can-avoid-screwing-covid-19-response-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.

“I’m still getting over my shock at how badly this was handled,” said epidemiologist Stephen Morse of Columbia University, who helped create an international network to detect and monitor disease outbreaks. “After all the work and all the exercises everyone did, it’s heartbreaking to see how badly the ball was dropped.”

STAT therefore asked 11 experts in infectious disease, epidemiology, and pandemic preparedness how to avoid the mistakes, poor decisions, and incompetence of this spring. We asked them not to invoke magic; advice like “develop a vaccine” is obvious but not very helpful. We also asked them to look forward more than backward; we don’t want to relitigate things like the monthslong shortages of Covid-19 diagnostic tests, President Trump’s cheerleading for unproven (and potentially harmful) treatments, or the demonstrably false assurances by the White House that anyone who wanted a diagnostic test could get one. The experts did take some peeks into the rear-view mirror, since understanding past mistakes can help us avoid repeating them. But for the most part they focused on how to do better next time.