The Turning Point

As the pandemic has evolved, the balance of individual freedoms and collective responsibilities is more complicated, particularly around the issue of vaccination.

Baseline expectation setting is critical for health if we are to be reasonably grounded in a data-informed reality.

The stories we tell ourselves about our success and failure can be quite different, even in the face of seemingly objective data.

The public’s tolerance for restrictions and actions to promote our collective health is not infinite.

The HIV pandemic changed our view of health care and its delivery in dramatic ways. Perhaps Covid-19 will change our view of health and who has access to it.

Recognizing that context shapes health behaviors, and that they are often driven by broad social phenomena, will help to promote healthy behavior in the future.

As we look to learn from the Covid-19 moment, it seems worth asking—what are the conditions under which we may be suitably cautious about the science? Three principal conditions come to our mind.

Public health is having its moment in the spotlight. It’s worth a pause to consider current challenges, and how to avoid overstating what we know and the confidence with which we know it.

Covid-19 has brought about new public health surveillance methods.

Now is the moment to think creatively about ways to bridge intractable racial and socioeconomic health gaps exposed by Covid-19 that existed prior to the pandemic.