The Turning Point

The Covid-19 moment creates an opportunity for change, but that change is unlikely to be predominantly about individual behavior.

We might have expected that with so much Covid-19 around, flu would be a fellow traveler, likewise infecting millions of Americans. But the only virus that’s had a successfully infectious year in 2020 was the new Covid-19.

Covid-19 did not slow the gun violence trend of the past decade. 2020 was another year where more gun sales did not buy more safety.

The Covid-19 moment has taught us that public health may not have been quite ready for the harsh glare of the global media spotlight.

We are at another moment where public health, politics, and civil rights activism have converged.

For a disease like Covid-19 where a person without symptoms can infect others, regular testing (for the sake of others) is critical.

Making plans for vaccine delivery prioritization is one issue; actually executing those plans is another concern entirely.

We can promote population health while leading, first, with promoting the health of those who are most vulnerable.

With the excitement of growing numbers of persons getting vaccinated nowadays, we are wont to forget the period when we quietly absorbed that we had no government help at all.

In the case of Covid-19, core to our thinking should be avoiding severity of disease and death. And as circumstances change that shape the risk of both, so should our thinking, our level of concern, and where we concentrate our energies.