WHEN DOES IT END? Thread on the question I raised @ReliableSources -- and the one too many are asking me now in light of new @cdc guidelines lasting 8 weeks. A bit of a shocker, yes; a strong WH comms strategy would have been preparing us. So, let me try to answer. 1/
I am not a therapist and you wouldn't want me to be. All I can do is honestly tell you how this unfolds as someone in this space on the crisis response side and who has spent a lot of time working with Govs, mayors and CEOs this week. I think you can handle it. 2/
The measure of success now isn't that we will contain the virus. It is here. It is that on the other side fewer will be dead or severely harmed by Coronavirus. We measure success that way. 100,000 dead is good if we anticipated 1,000,000 (I can sound harsh, I'm not). 3/
What's the other side of a response? It's called the recovery stage. I made a chronological chart (organizing chaos is my yoga) to provide a visual and so you can see that professionals (and many Govs and mayors) are trying to abide by it. 4/
We have a lot to do to get there: surging, production, capacity building. And remember that a flattened curve is longer. So the longer this takes, oddly, is a sign of our success. 5/
The metrics to get to recovery are a combination of factors. The most important is that we have kits that can test positive so those people can be isolated. The reason why things have gotten so crazy so fast is because we lost 6/
our ability at containment too soon and had to assume community spread to flatten the curve and preserve resources. By getting back to containment and limited community spread, we will then see available resources, such as ICUs, respirators. Our capacity will be replenished. 7/
The failure to have kits is the "original sin" but we must solve it to get us to the other side. I do not know how long it is to get ahead of the curve, and Governors and mayors are not waiting for WH anymore. I do know that aggressive social distancing is key. 8/
And I know that we have a President who does not have the capacity to lead us through this. We are too late on so many fronts; too disorganized without national guidance. It is dangerous. So we adapt. No time to complain. There will be a reckoning. 9/
But a lot of people are trying to get us to the other side, knowing that the measure of success is that fewer people will die. And you all are part of that. So, if you can, stop asking when this will end. It will. Good night. 10/10
