While the country’s attention is fixed on the rollout of the vaccine and the arrival of a new administration, the coronavirus pandemic rages on. In many parts of the U.S., case counts and deaths are still sky-high. And new variants of the virus are worrying scientists and prompting new restrictions across the globe.
Despite widespread COVID fatigue, public health experts say practicing mitigation strategies is as crucial as ever to save lives. But which strategies have proven most effective?
There is still wide variation in what local and state governments are willing and able to enforce. Should masks be mandated or only encouraged? Should indoor dining be limited or halted? Different places have taken widely different approaches, and this patchwork approach has meant outbreaks keep flaring up again and again.
We know what works to slow the spread, says Dr. Ashish Jha, public health policy researcher and dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health. That is, find ways to prevent people from gathering unmasked in indoor spaces for extended periods of time.
Countries that have developed a strong COVID-19 response all have strong digital infrastructures for monitoring and detecting the early spread of disease in order to implement preventive measures, Ranney says, in contrast to the U.S. where certain places still rely on faxes and paper tracking of test results and contact tracing.
Experts say the country needs to reinvest in public health by increasing budgets and promoting science.
Many public health departments were underfunded and understaffed even before the pandemic hit, leaving them ill-equipped to carry out operations like contact tracing, Nuzzo says. That’s why having resources in place is so crucial, she says.
“We don’t shut down fire houses just because there hasn’t been a fire in a community for a year,” Nuzzo says. “And[it’s]the same thing for public health.”
Ranney notes that a number of public health officials have quit during the pandemic after being the target of vitriol. State and national leaders set local and state health departments up to fail when they don’t take scientific evidence seriously, she argues.
The next few months will see a ramping up of public health infrastructure if Biden’s COVID-19 relief plans become a reality. Key elements of his administration’s strategy include creating more large-scale vaccination sites, hiring 100,000 new community health workers and launching a major public education campaign.
But while the pandemic may be the country’s most pressing public health problem, it’s not the only one.
“I don’t want us to lose sight of the fact that there are other coexisting epidemics in this country that are worsening during COVID-19,” Ranney says, pointing to issues like opioid abuse and preventable chronic diseases.
A lot of the infrastructure required to meet the needs of the pandemic — systems set up to help with vaccine rollout and increased funding for public health departments — can be repurposed to deal with these other issues, Ranney points out.
Nuzzo says once the country is no longer reacting to the pandemic, it should take stock of its experience in order to better prepare for the next inevitable public health emergency.
“This is not going to be the last situation we go through, it may not even be the worst,” she says. “We absolutely need to make sure we have the resources to act when and if the next thing happens, and keep them in place.”
