Dr. Jeremy Faust, an instructor at Harvard Medical School, told CNBC on Wednesday that the United States cannot see the sudden increases in coronavirus cases as inevitable, as states across the country try to combat rising floods. outbreaks.
“There’s not a huge appetite for closings right now, so we have to look for other things. We can’t just give up and say, ‘OK. We’re not going to do anything,'” Faust said in “Power Lunch.” .
The number of Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations related to the virus is increasing in states like Texas, California and Arizona. The outbreaks worsened after states lifted orders to stay home and eased restrictions on companies.
Test capacity in the US USA It has expanded dramatically since the pandemic began, contributing to some of the increasing cases. But hospitalization figures are less sensitive to overall testing ability. Additionally, some states, such as Florida and Arizona, are seeing their positive test rates increase, an indication of how widely the virus is spreading in a community.
People line up to be tested for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as part of the Valle del Sol tests at Tolleson 161 Fire Station in Tolleson, Arizona, USA. USA, June 18, 2020.
Courtney Pedroza | Reuters
Faust, who is also an emergency room physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said there is no “silver bullet” to prevent Covid-19 infection. He stressed the importance of wearing a face mask and keeping some capacity restrictions in place in public places.
“They help a little bit all the time,” Faust said, adding that contact tracing and quarantine of the sick are still necessary to combat the outbreaks, even if the sometimes asymptomatic nature of Covid-19 complicates those efforts. “That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do all of this because it helps a little. We have to recognize that just because something isn’t perfect doesn’t mean it’s not good.”
William Hanage, professor of epidemiology at Harvard’s TH Chan School of Public Health, said on CNBC’s “The Exchange” on Wednesday that it is clear that people want to avoid reinstating strict closure measures in response to the growing cases of Covid-19 . To avoid the economic damage that would follow, state and local governments must be proactive when smaller increases in cases arise, he said.
“If you’re sitting in a community broadcast body long enough that all you can do is really serious, that’s the problem,” he said. “You should start taking milder actions sooner. When I talk about testing, not just testing. You know what you’re going to do if you get a certain kind of result. And that’s the kind of thing I’d like to be seeing more of.”
Faust argued that some governors chose to reopen their economies without adequately considering all the facts related to Covid-19 in their states. Many of the first states to lift the restrictions did not meet the criteria set by the White House to do so, according to an analysis by the New York Times last month.
“The lesson is that you want to be based on data, not on dates,” Faust said. “The places were opened because we reached a certain date on the calendar and people decided it was time to go.”
School this fall
Better planning and consideration is critical before fall and the scheduled start of school, Faust said, calling it “extremely important as a society” that children be able to attend classes in person.
“School is not just a convenience. It is an essential part of development for our children, and what we do today, we will see the effects of this in two months. The emergency to deal with schools is at this time.” said. “We have to innovate. We have to plan. We have to execute.”
Faust suggested that schools could rotate the number of children in a classroom at any given time and take advantage of underutilized spaces for instruction. In certain parts of the country, that could mean keeping the class out, he said.
“I want to see the innovation so that the worst case scenario does not come true, meaning that we essentially have a lost year for Americans and that it will indeed affect many people, but especially the poor,” he said.
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