SARS-CoV-2: The Road Ahead

Environmental & Science Education, STEM, Health, Medicine

Ed Hessler

The reporting linked below from STAT is a long read, a very long read but points are in bold and you can scan the content of the essay quickly.

STAT's Andrew Joseph takes on a formidable assignment, commenting on 30 turning points ahead each of which could change the the pandemic's trajectory. A road map, if you will...what ifs? Remember that this is what those months ahead might look like (my emphasis). Joseph writes, these are "possible turning points that could steer the pandemic onto a different course or barometers for how the virus is reshaping our lives, from rituals like Halloween and the Super Bowl, to what school could look like, to just how long we might be incorporating precautions into our routines."

Joseph continues “'I’m kind of done predicting — none of my predictions worked out for me,' Kelly Wroblewski of the Association of Public Health Laboratories said, with a resigned laugh, about when she thought the testing problems that have dogged us from the earliest days might get resolved. And indeed, some of the events will unfold in different ways and at other times than we’ve charted out.

"Yet for all that’s caught us off guard about Covid-19, some factors — like how a virus spilled from animals and swept around the world — are straight out of pandemic playbooks. We can see the coming crossroads."

The article is based on "interviews with dozens of experts, including public leaders like Anthony Fauci, frontline workers in hospitals and epidemiologists." 

One thing I'm certain of is that this report is the result of informed, thoughtful judgments as well as discussion by STAT writers. These are writers who know the health care field very well. Additionally, it is their regular beat.

So here you are.