Advancing Health in This Pandemic By Chad T. Rodgers, MD
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cientists and health professionals around the world have long anticipated a viral spread that could resemble the devastating Spanish Flu pandemic of 100 years ago. Though health care in the United States and around the globe has improved since that long-ago pandemic, the appearance in 2019 of SARS CoV-2, or COVID-19, was still a shock. Even advances in technology – including ventilator improvements, ECMO, vaccine development, and new medications – did not prepare the world for COVID-19. The changes at hospitals and clinics to prevent the spread of infection within their walls and to reduce complications of the disease, and even improved access to health care insurance, could not adequately prepare people for the current pandemic. Prior to its arrival in the U.S. in early 2020, there existed an awareness of weaknesses within the health care setting. Yet due to the already-busy health care world, many of these weaknesses were acknowledged and discussed, but they were put aside.
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And there were weaknesses that were not yet known. The pandemic brought those weaknesses – coupled with a lack of information on how to respond – to the forefront.
LEARNING AS WE GO
When this novel virus emerged, disease surveillance and other methods of data collection quickly helped pinpoint those places where it appeared. Health care practitioners could see where it was popping up in the world and identify when it came to their regions. It was known to be deadly, especially for patients with certain disease states. What was not known was how the virus spread. We soon learned that the virus was not spread from one person to another as readily on surfaces, but that transmission primarily occurred through respiratory spread. Identification of the vulnerabilities of certain demographics became clearer, and so did knowledge about the original virus’s contagiousness. The effectiveness of masking in prevention of spread was identified.
