Five years after the arrival of COVID -19 on the American coast, it is impossible to ignore the cultural change it has brought with it – including massive distrust in public health.
The evolution of information from the medical community combined with a politicization of the virus has dropped confidence in scientific and medical expertsEspecially along the festive lines.
While we find ourselves on the precipice to confirm a vaccination skeptic for the Head of Health and Social Services, it is crucial to begin to rebuild this confidence to keep the disinformation potentially fatal and avoid errors made during the pandemic.
We must first recognize what went well with the cocovid response of the United States. Under the direction of President Donald Trump in his first administration, as well as a dedicated working group, the United States has set up an initiative to allow faster approval and production of a vaccine coche in April 2020, four months after the virus arrived in the United States. In less than a year, vaccines were available for the masses and millions received potentially vital protection. And the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Niaid), Dr Anthony Fauci, who has become the face of the response of the federal government, sailed in the country by changing advice with a deepening balance and expertise.
But errors abounded. Trump was rightly criticized for a relatively slow response to Covid, as Scientific projections warned Years in advance that a pandemic should take place. A shortage of test kits has probably led to greater spread and cost of cost. And while the relationship was moving between Trump and Fauci, Trump began to publicly contradict his advice, with many governors of the red state and their staff who followed the trial, ultimately making the target of threats and attempts prosecution.
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Fauci also played a role in sowing distrust, if it is involuntarily. He gave contradictory advice on masks, at some point, admitting that it was donePartly, to prevent a shortage of masks for health workers on the front line, while declaring that studies began to find masks were more effective in preventing the propagation than this initially thought.
He also changed his initial threshold for the immunity of the herd, say New York Times He based his decision in part on science and partly on “his instinct that the country is finally ready to hear what he really thinks”.
But his contributions to deal with this new virus should not be mined, especially since he even persisted in the face of the hostility of his detractors. His actions illustrate the difficult decisions than him and other public health professionals had to face – balance mass hysteria with the truth and too much information with not enough.
Meanwhile, in the weeks that were still renamed, Trump withdrew from who, leaving us in the ignorance of critical information that would help future health threats. He also paused on CDC health communications to the general public.
Perhaps the most shocking of all, he questioned the effectiveness of vaccines He rejected in 2020.
Robert Kennedy Jr., who is a few days before this doubt, is a few days to be confirmed as a new federal health secretary. Despite his denial during his Recent testimonies at CongressKennedy was a frank opponent of vaccines, repeatedly refusing to recognize “a scientific consensus according to which infant vaccines do not cause autism and that COVVI-9 vaccines saved millions of lives”, ” AP reports.
With so much contradictory information from the leaders of the federal government and even of the experts themselves, it is easy to see how conspiracy theories flourish in these uncertain times.
But he bears the crucial question with which each person must attack: who should we trust?
Local public health officials who spoke during a recent event from the Akron Press Club – people who live and work in our community – want people to know that what seems to be contradictory information is often due to The volatile nature of science, which is always changing as new data is available.
They also want the public to examine the motivations of those who transmit information.
Medical experts and scientists have devoted their lives to the progress of the health and safety of others.
Many of those of the government can have political or even financial motivations. In the case of Kennedy, he made at least hundreds of thousands, if not more, helping the proceedings for injuries to the vaccine and the defense of children’s health, A non-profit organization that propagates anti-vaccine disinformation. Like Dr. Amy Lee, professor of family and community medicine at Northeast Ohio Medical University, suggested it, “according to money”.
While we head towards the probability of another pandemic, whatever the scope, it will be crucial for Ohio and the United States to focus on the good policies that rely on past errors and hierarchire the people on politics. This could include, in addition to quickly obtaining test kits, also providing more paid disease days for parents and the flexibility of work at home to prevent spread.
But above all, it is time for the government to restore and promote faith in science.
This play was written by the editor -in -chief of the opinion and community commitment of the Akron Beacon Journal Theresa Bennett on behalf of the editorial committee of The Beacon Journal. Editorials are factual assessments of important questions for the communities we serve. It is not the opinions of our members of the declaration staff, which aim at neutrality in their reports.