I was honored to testify today in front of congressional @EnergyCommerce committee:
"Lessons from the Front-Line: #COVID19's Impact on American Health Care."
My opening statement ... followed by congressional member questions...
#mentalhealthishealth
🧵 1x
Mental, physical & behavioral health are inseparable.
The pandemic has laid bare our vast vulnerabilities.
#Primarycare is where ppl can be fully seen & heard, where trust is born & where we apply broad public health advice to pts' unique medical issues & lived experience ...2x
Approx 80M Americans don't have a primary care provider.
We must scale up/increase access to needed #primarycare services, as a hub for problem-solving for medical conditions like obesity, diabetes & depression, in order to heal from trauma & prepare for the next pandemic...3x
On the erosion of trust in public health institutions & the critical important of truth, transparency & trust in medicine - in addition to access to #primarycare 👇 4x
This is a parallel pandemic of mental health in crisis. The @Surgeon_General @AmerAcadPeds et al declared a #mentalhealth emergency in children/teens.
Moving forward, we must recognize the broad & diverse array of health risks. Health is abt more than the absence of COVID19..5x
Proposal: school-based #primarycare & mental/behavioral health services.
Let's meet people where they are. 👇 6x
On the need for a more diverse range of experts at the table during a global pandemic.
The more voices, the better - during & after a collective trauma. ..7x
Trust is the commodity in patient care. We must incentivize doctors graduating from medical school to go into #primarycare. We also need more NPs & PAs!
We must recognize that *time* & the *relationship* with a primary care medical provider is the public health ground game...8x
Two big public health failures:
1) Prolonged school closures, and
2) Failure to protect our frail nursing home population in 2020
In the future, we must tailor our mitigation efforts to degree of risk & recognize the potential harms of any/all interventions 👇 9x
More on the harms of school closures. 👇 10x
On the absence of compelling real-world data (to date!) that masks *mandates* in schools meaningfully reduce the risk of SARSCoV2 transmission within schools ...11x👇. .
Link to today's full hearing 👇👇👇 .... 12x
On infection-acquired immunity versus vaccine-induced immunity.
The human immune system is *not* a political body; it’s an immune system. 👇 13x
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