Céline Gounder, MD, ScM, FIDSA 🇺🇦 Profile picture
Medicine / Infectious Disease / Epidemiology / @KFF @CBSNews @NYUGrossman @BellevueHosp doc / https://t.co/ePJoqg37pn / https://t.co/FWR3TI2WIX

Oct 2, 2022, 30 tweets

2/ Why did the United States of America🇺🇸 fail so spectacularly?

The Death Toll Says It All
by me for @TheAtlantic last December:
theatlantic.com/health/archive…

3/ The American healthcare system is designed for profit-making, not to care for patients & to help them stay & get healthy.

The point is to monetize every box, circle, arrow, & line in the flow chart:

4/ But we, the United States of America🇺🇸, refuse to learn.
theatlantic.com/health/archive…

5/ We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fix our crumbling schools
thehill.com/opinion/educat…
by me & @j_g_allen in @thehill

6/ Pandemics are by definition a collective action problem, not a problem for individuals to solve on their own.
theatlantic.com/health/archive…

7/ How America Can Rebuild the Community Bonds It Needs to Face the Next Pandemic
time.com/6138465/covid-…
by me, @RobertDPutnam & @shaylynromney for @TIME

8/ We need to build a sense of community because we have MANY more "we" problems ahead of us.
time.com/6138465/covid-…

9/ How can we build that sense of community?
time.com/6138465/covid-…

10/ How can we build that sense of community?
time.com/6138465/covid-…
(continued)

11/ How can we build that sense of community?
time.com/6138465/covid-…
(continued)

12/ How can we build that sense of community?
time.com/6138465/covid-…
(continued)

13/ How can we build that sense of community?
time.com/6138465/covid-…
(continued)

14/ We are not all free to protect ourselves & live healthy lives.
theatlantic.com/health/archive…

15/ In the United States of America🇺🇸, we blame people for getting sick & dying.
theatlantic.com/health/archive…

16/ Sickness & death are divine punishments for being somehow less deserving.
theatlantic.com/health/archive…

17/ Epidemics & pandemics are SOCIAL problems.
theatlantic.com/health/archive…

18/ "Medicine is a social science, & politics nothing but medicine on a grand scale."
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.111…

But neither healthcare providers nor public health workers are armed with the tools for this work.

We're often ACTIVELY DISCOURAGED from doing such work. #ThisIsOurLane

19/ Americans are blinded by scientific & technological progress, not realizing that too few us of are benefiting from it.
theatlantic.com/health/archive…

20/ When we need public health most, our leaders are waging war against it
washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/0…
by me for @washingtonpost

21/ Tools don't work if you don't have them & can't use them.
theatlantic.com/health/archive…

22/ The United States of America's🇺🇸 racist history has left us blind to policies that other developed nations have adopted, like paid sick & family medical leave or universal health insurance.

23/ When we need public health most, our leaders are waging war against it
washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/0…
by me for @washingtonpost

24/ How can we put covid behind us without guaranteed paid sick leave?
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…
by me & my @KFF colleague @Mollybrodie in @washingtonpost

25/ The pandemic isn't over.

26/ Even when we do make the transition to endemic, it does NOT mean COVID will have come to an END.
theatlantic.com/health/archive…

27/ It's in OUR POWER to decide at what levels to control COVID:
🔹at high levels of endemicity
(e.g. HIV or tuberculosis in parts of Africa)
🔹or low levels of endemicity

It's in OUR POWER to shape the "new normal.

28/ What might our "new normal" with COVID look like?

29/ What might our "new normal" with COVID look like?

30/ What about 300-500 deaths per day?
or 150K deaths per year?

Is that our new normal?

The United States of America🇺🇸 can do better.

That starts by imagining better.

That should be Our American Dream.

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