Thread by @dpatil

I’ve been full-time working for COVID for 14 weeks with states and cities across the U.S. & here are my lessons-learned for us to get ready for the next wave of COVID
medium.com/@dpatil/6-less…

Here's a quick thread -- 1/

2/ For those that don’t know, I’ve been on leave from @devotedhealth for 100 days working up in Sacramento on a wide array of areas from modeling, data, etc. I’ve also been working with other states and many of the major cities. Here’s what I’ve found.

3/ There are incredible public servants out there who are doing everything they can to ensure public health. They are underfunded & have been so for more than a decade. They deserve our respect AND gratitude.

That one's I've worked with I'm grateful. To all of you
THANK YOU🙏🙏

4/ I’m incredibly saddened by the vitriolic attacks on public health officers. They deserve better and we need to come to their defense. If you’ve got skills, consider helping your local health officer.

5/ I’m proud of the data science & tech communities rising to the occasion and building models in collaborative ways with epidemiologists. There are so many amazing people & THANK YOU

6/ Here’s one example of @sam_shah & @josh_wills w/ help from @Werner + the @awscloud team allthingsdistributed.com/2020/04/scalin…

It's amazing & outstanding what they have delivered

7/ There’s also the incredible work of @USDResponse w/ @rypan @corizarek @pahlkadot @emdashry
protocol.com/us-digital-res…

They are heroes & just getting started --usdigitalresponse.org

Plus the continuing amazing crew of @codeforamerica
codeforamerica.org

8/ Why do we need to get ready for the next wave? All signs point to a wave is coming and it’s coming sooner than people expect. Also we are very early in our understanding of COVID. That’s why we need better data and faster. We have to ACCELERATE our speed of learning.

9/ I can go on and on about stats of the impact of COVID, but let’s be clear; TOO MANY PEOPLE TO DYING. TOO MANY PEOPLE ARE GETTING SICK. We are well past 100,000 deaths here in the U.S. and it’s on track to get much worse.

10/ Remember those data points have names. They are someone's loved ones. Don’t forget the names.

11/ Managing COVID will be a multiyear effort until an effective vaccine is developed. And even after the development of a vaccine, it will require a massive effort to sufficiently inoculate the world’s population.

12/ COVID is not “the (only) big one”. We are still at risk for other pandemics with much greater transmissibility and mortality. Such as from other coronaviruses, pandemic influenza, drug resistant tuberculosis, and other viruses that will continue to emerge.

13/ What do we need to do NOW? That’s why I wrote this paper. And special thanks to @drnigam @atulbutte @ASlavitt and so many more people in the respective parts of state and city governments who helped provide input and thoughts on the recommendations

14/ What will you find in this paper?
1 We need to Establish a foundation for a data-driven public health system

2 We need  surveillance testing for the masses

3 Mobile apps won’t save the day, but can be a powerful asset

15/
4 Why modeling is hard and what we need to do to make it better

5  We need a new institute for healthcare, disease, environmental, and economic data

6 We new vision of public health

And at the end, you’ll find my policy recommendations for the country

16/ Here's the thing. This was just 100 days in. From just before the first shelter-in-place order. Every day is a week, every week is a year in COVID. We're going to need YOU to help with your best ideas. So start sharing. I'm here to help
/EOM