Dr. Tom Frieden Profile picture
Sep 22, 2020 5 tweets 1 min read Read on X
Every one of the 200,000 Americans killed by Covid is a tragedy, and most of these deaths did not have to happen. The future is in our hands.
We can save lives and accelerate economic recovery by putting science and public health at the center of our response. As the global death toll passes one million, this also means collaborating to improve public health systems worldwide.
There is no fairy tale ending to this pandemic—not even a vaccine.
By chipping away at it with fewer crowded indoor spaces, the #3Ws (wear a mask, watch your distance, wash your hands), and the Box-It-In approach of strategic testing, rapid isolation, complete contact tracing, and supportive quarantine, we can save lives and restore livelihoods.
If there is a silver lining to this pandemic, it is the possibility that we will recognize that we’re all in this together. By working together, we can overcome the virus. bit.ly/2Eun7kI

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More from @DrTomFrieden

May 3, 2023
Updated Covid booster recommendations and the unwinding of the public health emergency in the United States have raised questions and highlighted lingering challenges. How should we be thinking about these developments? Who should get a booster this spring? 1/thread
Covid hasn’t gone away, but it no longer poses the same threat to most people it did in the first years after its emergence. This is due, in large part, to lifesaving vaccinations and treatment, and also to prior infections, which reduce the risk too. 2/
Our wall of immunity, built up from both vaccinations and infection, is strong—but it’s not impervious. Protection wanes, and the virus continues to mutate. Even now, older adults and medically vulnerable people remain susceptible to severe illness and death. 3/
Read 19 tweets
Apr 8, 2023
In New York City, Covid killed more people than any other cause in the pandemic’s first year and caused life expectancy to drop by 4.6 years on average, according to the newly released annual report of NYC vital statistics. Confirmation of a devastating toll. 1/thread
What gets measured can be managed, which is why reports like this are crucial. More than 200 New Yorkers die every day, including >50 people under age 65, a data point I tracked closely as NYC Health Commissioner and focused intently on bringing down. bit.ly/41cFZcm 2/ Image
Every life counts. A moving piece published last week in @nytimes shows vividly the necessity—and challenge—of tracking all births and deaths. 3/ bit.ly/3Gmll1O
Read 10 tweets
Mar 17, 2023
The past three years of fighting Covid feel like a fog of war. Although everyone wants to move on, we must reckon with how bad the pandemic was—and how much worse it could have been. 1/thread
20 million excess deaths have occurred during the Covid pandemic—more than all but the two other leading causes of death, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Without vaccination, measures to reduce infections and lifesaving medical care so many more lives would have been lost. 2/
Those who are intent on undermining public health action argue that there was nothing we could have done to counter Covid, that all of the infections and deaths were inevitable. But they ignore that some places had much lower rates of infections, hospitalizations and deaths. 3/
Read 15 tweets
Feb 23, 2023
Masks have been an effective tool throughout the Covid pandemic, despite erroneous claims to the contrary. 1/thread
The widely cited Cochrane review on masks was poorly done and even more poorly communicated. Regrettably, researchers analyzed the wrong datasets, in the wrong way, and overstated their conclusions—leading to sweeping and inaccurate characterizations. 2/
Many nuances around mask type, setting, behavior, and policy are explained in this helpful piece by @dr_kkjetelina. bit.ly/3ErwuNN 3/
Read 15 tweets
Feb 4, 2023
Over the past decade, global smoking rates dropped by 23% and 750 billion fewer cigarettes are sold annually. But despite this progress, tobacco is still the world’s leading cause of death and unless we do more, will kill ONE BILLION people in this century. 1/thread
The FDA recently announced a national ban on menthol cigarettes and a new California law to curb flavored tobacco was overwhelmingly affirmed by voters in November. Big Tobacco's reaction to these two recent public health wins underscores the fight we have ahead of us. 2/
Why are these wins significant? Big Tobacco has a long history of targeting Black communities with menthol cigarettes. The FDA ban could undo shocking disparities in lung cancer deaths suffered by Black Americans compared to their white counterparts. bit.ly/3JtXQWQ 3/
Read 8 tweets
Jan 29, 2023
Amid discussion of the future of Covid vaccination, we can’t lose sight of the present: Only 1% of immunocompromised people in the US received a full set of Covid vaccinations as of Aug. That’s a colossal failure. The 5 steps to avoid failure in public health explained 1/thread
500 people are still dying from Covid every day. That’s not normal and it doesn’t have to happen! Immunocompromised people—along with the elderly—are at the highest risk of dying from Covid. 2/
Vaccines are remarkably effective against severe disease, but their protection must be reinforced, especially for vulnerable people. Boosters reinforce our protection, and a new CDC study underscores their importance. bit.ly/4062XCq 3/
Read 24 tweets

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