Interview with the Epidemiologist

It's easy to get swept up in the hopeful feeling at the moment: more places are reopening, they're saying kids are "definitely" going back to school in the fall, the days are longer and sunnier, things are almost starting to feel normal. And then you read an interview with an informed and realistic epidemiologist and you go right back to feeling as depressed as you did in March...

"When you think about only 5% of this country’s been infected to date, and you understand the pain, the suffering, the death, and economic disruption that’s occurred with just 5%, then you can imagine what it’s going to take for us to get to 60 or 70%."

If you read nothing else (it's long, but not that long), at least read the top bullet points, including:

• 3 months ago, COVID-19 was not even in the top 75 causes of death in this country. Much of the last month, it was the #1 cause of death in this country. This is more remarkable than the 1918 Flu pandemic.
• There is no scientific indication Covid-19 will disappear of its own accord.
• If you’re under age 55, obesity is the #1 risk factor. So, eating the right diet, getting physical activity, and managing stress are some of the most important things you can do to protect yourself from the disease.
• We can expect COVID-19 to infect 60% – 70% of Americans. That’s around 200 million Americans.
• We can expect between 800,000 and 1.6 million Americans to die in the next 18 months if we don’t have a successful vaccine.
• There is no guarantee of an effective vaccination and even if we find one, it may only give short term protection.
• Speeding a vaccination into production carries its own risks.
• The darkest days are still ahead of us. We need moral leadership, the command leadership that doesn’t minimize what’s before us but allows everyone to see that we’re going to get through it.