Thread by @AbraarKaran

1/ The single most important lesson I learned working on a state #covid19 response for 7 months: there is nothing worse you can do in an epidemic than waste time

We had over 187,000 new cases yesterday

What the hell are we doing?

https://twitter.com/AbraarKaran/status/1257526025245855747

2/ We have an intervention that we know works, that is of immense benefit w/ little to no cost. Yet we are still leaving that up to choice in so many parts of this country.

Don't ask me to say #MaskUp again- we need a national mask mandate for indoor spaces, now.

3/ We have thousands of Americans (maybe more) who are thinking about flying around the country for the holidays.

This is a true catastrophe waiting to happen. This is an epidemic slingshot being stretched, & will fire off more cases than we can handle.

4/ We know this, yet we are "advising" that people don't do it.

That's leadership?

That's recklessness. You will not find a single public health expert advising travel right now; we are consistently saying do not do it. Do not endanger your families

Viral spread is too high

5/ Our public messaging on this needs to be much more direct

We might all be tired; most of us are. I am.

But the reality is what it is

We are in the situation we are in

We need to step up now

We cannot propagate this further; it will break down our healthcare system

6/ Not only should you be "hunkering down" as @zeynep said; you should see it as a public service to convince friends, neighbors and others who trust you to do the same.

This has always been a community response. It will take all of us working *together*
theatlantic.com/health/archive…

7/ One of the most important things I could do this week was to call some of my own family members in other parts of the country & reinforce this to them.

They canceled their trip.

If each of us can do this, we can avoid *a lot* of transmission. Don't underestimate it.

8/ The epidemic seems largely out of control right now; except that it really still is in our hands.

Every day is a day we can stop a new transmission chain from starting; a new day we can avert another super spreading disaster.

We have to believe that our actions *matter*

cc thread @mccabe_caitlin @edyong209 @apoorva_nyc @kakape @thehowie @RanuDhillon @celinegounder @syramadad @choo_ek @MoNscience @AliNouriPhD @angie_rasmussen @KatherineJWu @AmyMacKinnon @acsifferlin @cglennvino @KateTripp @francesmargaret @chrissyfarr @cshea4 @Laurie_Garrett

cc thread @jabarocas @rkwadhera @nataliexdean @EpiEllie @T_Inglesby @ASlavitt @j_g_allen @Atul_Gawande @CarlosdelRio7 @balajis @carlzimmer @powellnyt @B_resnick

cc thread- what we do is still in our hands right now @ChelseaClinton @drsanjaygupta @mtosterholm

cc @DrTomFrieden @llborio @jljcolorado @neel_shah @muhammadpate @kj_seung @ReganHMarsh @Craig_A_Spencer