FIVE YEARS LATER – LESSONS LEARNED FROM COVID (or Not)
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“Science Amid Chaos: What Worked During the Pandemic? What Failed?”
By Apoorva Mandavilli
“Until 2020, few Americans needed to think about how viruses spread or how the human immune system works. The pandemic offered a painful crash course. Sometimes, it seemed that the science was evolving as quickly as the virus itself.
So The New York Times asked experts to revisit the nightmare. Of the most significant public health measures introduced during Covid, which have held up scientifically, and which turned out to be wrongheaded?
The question is particularly important now, because pandemics that could upend American lives are inevitable. One candidate has already surfaced: bird flu.
Perhaps the biggest lesson learned, several experts said, is that recommendations during any pandemic are necessarily based on emerging and incomplete information. But during Covid, federal agencies often projected more confidence in their assessments than was warranted.
Next time, the scientists said, officials should be more forthright about the uncertainties and prepare the public for guidance that may shift as the threat comes into clearer focus.
Rather than promote preventive measures as infallible solutions, they should also acknowledge that no single intervention is perfect — though many imperfect measures can build a bulwark.
to read the full article go to
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/14/health/covid-pandemic-public-health.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
“Five Years On, Ghosts of a Pandemic We Didn’t Imagine Still Haunt Us”
By Dan Barry
“The repercussions of Covid extend beyond the hundreds of people it still kills a week, beyond the many who still suffer from long Covid, beyond the ghostly restaurants and storefronts that could not withstand the sudden and sustained plummet in business.
A cohort of adolescents and young adults missed out on the learning that occurs in and out of the classroom…
The pandemic turned us against one another. Were we pro-mask or anti-mask? Pro- or anti-vaccination?
The anger spurred by masks and other Covid-related rules and requirements helped to further fuel a distrust of government: a distrust embraced by those now in government…
At times it seems the collective impulse to suppress has worked too well. As though we never heard the hum of those refrigerated trucks. As though we have forgotten just how vulnerable we were, and are.”
to read the full article got to
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/15/us/pandemic-five-years-dan-barry.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
“Five Years Older, None the Wiser”
By Christopher Fox
“One year after highly pathogenic avian influenza first spilled over from birds to cows — and five years after COVID first arrived in New York — the country is, in one veterinarian’s words, “a pot of swirling virus with every species thrown in the middle.” Multiple strains of H5N1 are burning uncontrolled through cattle herds and poultry flocks. Farmers have been forced to euthanize millions of chickens, turkeys, and ducks. Pet food made from infected meat has been linked to the deaths of several house cats, and the list of species testing positive for bird flu grows longer every day: squirrels and raccoons, dolphins and deer mice, polar bears and rats, skunks and alpacas.”
“This was, and is, a crisis that seems to demand an overwhelming response. The longer we allow the virus to run rampant through animal populations, the greater our chances of disaster. Instead, we’ve had a replay of the first year of the COVID pandemic, and we are now approaching a moment when our final line of defense for both people and animals may be an effective vaccine — just as the most anti-vaccine administration in history has taken power.”
“For our new cover story, Christopher Cox reports on how bird flu spread around the country, and what would happen if it became the next pandemic. For now, H5N1 remains primarily a threat to birds and cows and the people who raise them. But if that changes, one thing is undeniable: We aren’t prepared.”
to read the full article go to
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/next-pandemic-2025-new-bird-flu-h5n1-virus-outbreak.html
“Five Lessons from Covid-19 (5 years after Michigan’s 1st COVID-19 case, health leaders offer fresh warnings)
By Kristen Jordan Shamus
“Lesson 1: Crisis drives innovation, bridge building
The scientific community had little choice but to innovate quickly to save lives in 2020.
“We had to abandon our usual protocols and think outside the box,” said Ducatman, a pathologist who was the lab chief at the Royal Oak hospital when the pandemic began. In a single weekend, her team accomplished what ordinarily would take six weeks, adapting the CDC’s coronavirus test kit for their own use.””
“Lesson 2: Diversify sources of medical supplies
“”Throughout my tenure, we almost never had enough of anything,” Ducatman said. “We didn’t have enough PPE. We didn’t have enough lab re-agents. We didn’t have enough lab tests. … What I really learned during COVID was that during the crisis, you really need to make decisions that aren’t always brilliant, but you make it on the best information, and then the next day or a week (later) … you had to change what you were doing because the situation changed so rapidly.””
“Lesson 3: Mental health fallout from COVID-19 still hurts
“Whenever there’s a disaster like this, the physical parts of it usually can be addressed much quicker than the mental health issues,” said Dr. Michelle Riba, a professor of psychiatry at U-M and past president of the American Psychiatric Association. “We’ve seen that after other disasters, such as 9/11, after earthquakes and floods, and we’re seeing this now with COVID-19 as well.””
“Lesson 4: Telehealth grew, but could be in jeopardy
When coronavirus hit, rules that govern video visits were temporarily eased to allow more flexibility so people living anywhere in the state — rural or not — could initiate virtual medical appointments from home, rather than at a doctor’s office.”
“Lesson 5: Missteps fueled distrust in science, medicine
Corewell’s Gilpin said some of the distrust in public health is rooted in the pandemic’s earliest days, when scientists were still trying to understand how the coronavirus spread, establish masking recommendations, and develop tests, treatments and vaccines.”
to read the full article go to
https://www.freep.com/story/news/health/2025/03/09/covid-anniversary-bird-flu-michigan-h5n1/81437282007/
“Heeding the lessons of COVID-19 in the face of avian influenza”
By Matthew S Miller
“The question is whether we will act in time to head off a bird flu pandemic. The Spanish Flu was the first of five influenza pandemics since the end of the First World War.
A sixth is inevitable without co-ordinated global action. Otherwise, the only questions are when it will it come and how bad it will be.
Infectious diseases constitute a permanent threat to society, especially as vaccine hesitancy and misinformation grow. Fighting pandemics needs to be a full-time, ongoing priority for governments everywhere.
After the arrival of COVID-19, there were some impressive investments in infrastructure and science to support pandemic preparedness, but many were essentially one-time projects.
Canada needs to establish permanent capacity to prevent and respond to health emergencies. Government agencies specifically dedicated to supporting the development of medical countermeasures for pathogens that pose a pandemic risk, like the recently established Health Emergencies Readiness Canada (HERC), are a step in the right direction.”
to read the full article go to
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/health/heeding-the-lessons-of-covid-19-in-the-face-of-avian-influenza
“Public Health Survived the Pandemic. Now It Fights Politics.”
By Kate Zernike Emily Cochrane and Isabelle Taft
“Five years after the pandemic began, many say that the entrenched politicization of Covid has left them with fewer tools to respond and fresh challenges:
“Suspicion about Covid vaccines has created hesitancy around all vaccines, and led to looser requirements….
New laws in a number of states limit local officials’ authority to not only issue broad mandates on masking or vaccines…
The Trump administration has laid off hundreds of workers and vowed to cut budgets at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…,
The administration has also withdrawn the United States from the World Health …
Trust in public health has dropped sharply…
to read the full article go to
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/13/us/public-health-covid-pandemic-politics.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare