Hindsight

Last update: Wednesday 11/30/22 

Viewing the pandemic in a rearview mirror ==> What really happened, why, and when should we have known it??? 

.

• "Citing a disastrous pandemic response, an expert panel calls for an overhaul of the U.S. public health system.", Sheryl Gay Stolberg. NY Times, 6/21/22 
  
  
• "How Millions of Lives Might Have Been Saved From Covid-19", Zeynep Tufekci, NY Times, 3/11/22 
  
  
• "The Long-Term Safety Argument over COVID-19 Vaccines", Andrew L. Croxford, Boston Review, 9/14/21 
  
  
• "Show Me the Data!", Zeynep Tufekci, NY Times, 8/27/21
  Editor's note -- This op ed captures the essence of the CDC's failure to provide consistent guidance. The CDC does not collect the kinds of systematic data required to understand what's really happening with regards to many important challenges. Non-systematic data is only one or two steps above anecdotes. When the CDC gathers different non-systematic data, the CDC changes its guidance; but the unknown, underlying causal relationships may not have changed. As has been wisely said: "The plural of anecdote is not data" ... and neither is the plural of non-systematic data 
  
  
• "COVID proved the CDC is broken. Can it be fixed?", Jeneen Interland, NY Times, 6/16/21
  ... Editor's comment -- This is a "must skim" article. It's a "TLDR" for most folks ("Too long; didn't read"), but its core message must be grasped by anyone who wants to understand why the U.S. continues to botch its handling of the pandemic so badly. Yes, President Trump bears ultimate responsibility for what happened in 2020; but this article presents a depressing, rambling look inside an agency that is underfunded and in a state of permanent disarray. If President Biden doesn't reorganize this crucial agency immediately, it will be his turn to bear ultimate responsibility for its future failures. For additional comments on this blog, see "An open letter to President Biden regarding the critical need to reorganize the CDC immediately")
  
  
• Comprehensive reviews of scientific research on face masks -- "Face masks: what the data say", Lynne Peeples, Nature, 10/6/20 ... and the more recent "An evidence review of face masks against COVID-19", Jeremy Howard et al., PNAS, 1/28/21
  
  
• "The CDC Waited 'Its Entire Existence for this Moment.' What Went Wrong", Eric Lipton, Abby Goodnough, Michael D. Shear, Megan Twohey, Apoorva Mandavilli, Sheri Fink and Mark Walker, NY Times, 6/3/20
  ... Editor's comment -- Similar conclusions were drawn by a subsequent note on this blog that also considered President Trump's task force ... "Where do we go from here?", 8/9/20
  
  
• A Striking Disconnect on the Virus: Economic Pain With Little Illness", Michael H. Keller, Steve Eder and Karl Russell, NY Times, 6/6/20
  
  
• "‘How Could the CDC Make That Mistake?’", Alexis C. Madrigal and Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic, 5/21/20
  
  
• Imperial College (London) ... Report 9  (4/16/20)
  Note: This link is to the summary of the report on the model's projections. Readers should click the download link on the summary to obtain a copy of the full report. This is the report that caused the UK to drastically increase its mitigation efforts

____________________________________

Links to related notes on this blog:  

•