Cars line up at a COVID-19 testing site at Tropical Park, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2020, in Miami.

Cars line up at a COVID-19 testing site at Tropical Park, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2020, in Miami. AP / Wilfredo Lee

COVID-19 Is Out of Control. What Can We Do?

We need a one-two punch to knock the virus down and then keep it down.

The coronavirus is growing out of control. Deaths will likely increase to 2,000 people a day before the end of the year, and the virus will be with us for much of 2021 and possibly longer. Of the many failures of the outgoing administration’s handling of COVID-19, the most destructive has been its failure to communicate honestly and directly from the start. We can’t get our economy back on track and help millions of Americans emerge from extended crisis until we control the virus.

A safe, effective, and widely available vaccine would be a game changer, but we’re likely many months away from this becoming a reality. The announcement from Pfizer about its vaccine trial is very encouraging, but the vaccine’s safety and efficacy among groups such as the elderly are still unclear. Even with a vaccine that’s fully vetted and ready to go, it will take many months for enough people to receive it to provide population-wide protection. Until then, we need a one-two punch to knock the virus down and then keep it down.

The first action, closing parts of society, needs to be strategic. Timing matters. The initial widespread closure in the spring poisoned the well. Many parts of the country shut down too soon and for too long. By the time COVID-19 came to areas that hadn’t yet needed to close, people were tired of waiting and resisted continued restrictions. An effective closure needs to be nuanced, specific, and tightened and loosened based on real-time data about where the virus is spreading.

Public-health experts learned a lot over the spring and summer. Lockdown and stay at home are not just inaccurate terms; they are unnecessary measures. Outdoor activities are great and largely safe. Schools and child care can, with precautions, stay open unless community spread is extensive. Spread in schools and universities has generally occurred where safety measures such as mask wearing have not been implemented, or in social settings, not academic ones. To keep our kids physically in school, we need to skip after-school pizza parties and other nonessential activities.

Business meetings and work that can be remote should stay so. With modifications and masks, some work sites can open. Delivery, curbside pickup, and safer shopping can keep our economy recovering through the holiday season. We’ve learned what people care about, and getting haircuts and holiday shopping are high on the list, so let’s try to keep salons and retail stores open but make them safer by requiring masks, eliminating crowds, increasing ventilation, and encouraging workers and customers to stay home if they have symptoms. Physical activity is important to health, including mental health, so let’s modify facilities and participation to minimize risk while helping people stay active. Outdoor-recreation classes and individual activities such as walking, running, hiking, and cycling are safe. Well-ventilated gyms—with universal masking (yes, masks with face shields can be worn even while engaging in vigorous physical activity), strict cleaning protocols, and physical distancing—may be able to stay open.

Indoor restaurants, bars, and social gatherings are, sadly, unsafe right now. Low occupancy, increased ventilation, and masking when possible can reduce, but not eliminate, the risk of COVID-19 in these places, especially when the virus is spreading widely. Curfews for restaurants and bars, which officials are implementing in different areas, will help some, but they don’t fully address the fact that any indoor place where people eat, drink, and socialize without masks for extended periods of time is problematic.

Governments should mandate mask wearing in all indoor public places and require business restrictions such as capacity controls and, where necessary, reduced hours or temporary closures. Comprehensive action is particularly important for places where COVID-19 spreads explosively, including meatpacking, agricultural, and other workplaces where distancing is difficult, as well as for congregate housing, including nursing homes, homeless shelters, and correctional facilities. In addition to universal mask wearing, these regulations should include installing physical barriers such as plexiglass shields, upgrading ventilation systems, and increasing space between people.

The responsibility of containing the virus doesn’t just fall on the government. Individuals must also play a role. Thanksgiving could be the perfect storm to accelerate the spread of COVID-19. It would be a good year to skip travel and large Thanksgiving gatherings. If you do get together with others, each pod should limit outside contact for the 14 days before the holiday and minimize risk of exposure during travel. People should reduce the size of gatherings, spend less time indoors together, wear masks when not eating, increase ventilation, and make sure that no one who is feeling sick participates.

Although spring closures were poorly timed and targeted in many parts of the country, our first punch landed in the Northeast, driving down cases to low levels, and reduced viral spread in much of the rest of the country. But our second punch—keeping the virus down—has, so far, missed badly.

Despite lots of effort, current programs to test, trace, and isolate cases have failed to stop the large majority of spread. Tests must come back in hours, not days, and are particularly important among social networks in order to trace webs of transmission and isolate and quarantine people quickly. Outbreaks can be stopped, but only by quick, expert work—and cooperation with public-health measures, which is difficult to secure in an environment of misinformation and mistrust.

Around the world, the best-performing countries provide stipends, social support, and temporary housing to help people who are quarantined. South Korea and Singapore used large isolation facilities for moderately ill patients. Taiwan and Australia offered subsidized hotel accommodations and financial support ($500 and $1,100 per person in each country, respectively) to those ill or exposed. Supporting people with safe and appealing isolation for short periods of time would be a win-win, improving both COVID-19 control and economic stability.

Many clusters of cases come from people who go to work, school, or social get-togethers while ill. No testing, government, or health-care program can control COVID-19 if people continue this behavior. Government and businesses can help. No one should have to choose between feeding their family and keeping their co-workers safe. Paid sick leave reduces the spread of viral disease in workplaces. Instituting it will require collaboration by companies and strategic legal action by the incoming administration and, if possible, Congress. From a public-health standpoint, ensuring paid sick leave is a no-brainer. The devil is in the details of how this is done. In the CARES Act, provisions were limited and complex, so they didn’t help stop the spread of COVID-19 as much as a more effective law could have.

Above all, Americans need to rebuild social cohesion and trust in one another and in our government. What affects one of us can affect all of us. The fundamental scientific error of the push for so-called herd immunity is a failure to recognize this truth. Every infection is a step in the wrong direction, and every infection prevented is a step toward health and economic recovery. Trust will be particularly crucial if and when a safe and effective vaccine is available. But even with a vaccine, the year ahead will be long and difficult.

Because of White House incompetence, 2020 was a wasted year for control of the coronavirus in the United States. Our first punch, strategic closures, was poorly timed and created a lot of unnecessary collateral damage in most of the country. And our second, testing and isolation, flailed badly. It’s up to all of us—not just the incoming administration—to make sure that we get and keep the upper hand in 2021.

This story was originally published by The Atlantic. Sign up for their newsletter.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.