‘We Can’t Act Swiftly, Nimbly, Robustly if We Can’t See What is Happening From a Data Standpoint’

Regular readers know they can count on this space for a sobering look at what’s to come in the world of the coronavirus pandemic.
It appears that there’s as much of a 40% chance if not more that, within the coming two years, we will see a SARS-CoV-2 outbreak that will rival the omicron wave in illness and death.
The White House spoke with leading virologists and epidemiologists about whether the virus would once again develop new mutations that would allow it to evade current immunity from vaccines and treatments. These meetings were first reported by the Washington Post and came at the twilight of the public health emergency that was declared at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.
No one at the White House or the World Health Organization, for that matter, believes that the pandemic is over and no one believes that the chances of such a virulent wave are tiny or infinitesimal. On the other hand, such a wave is also not a certainty, either.
If there’s anything we’ve learnt from the current situation, it’s that we have to be far more responsive, we need to be nimble, and we have to be able to pivot on a dime using the learnings we’ve acquired over the period 2020 through 2023 and not do what we did in late 2019 and early 2020, which was effectively nothing
Officials in the federal government and at national health agencies have emphasized the need to take heed and guard against the next viral threat, whatever it may be, even if we are “over” the coronavirus pandemic.
To wit…
“One of my biggest worries is that we are losing time in preparing for the next pandemic,” said Dawn O’Connell, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services, a Senate committee hearing on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Rochelle Walensky, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who announced on Friday that she was stepping down from her position, told the committee that the CDC continues to face numerous challenges including limitations on the collection of data from hospitals and local health departments concerning potential viral outbreaks.
“We can’t act swiftly, nimbly, robustly if we can’t see what is happening from a data standpoint,” Walensky said rather pointedly.
Jonathan Spira contributed reporting to this story.
(Photo caption: Accura Media Group)