Share this page!

Ed Yong Profile picture
Twitter logo
30 Dec 20, 4 tweets, 2 min read
I always knew I wanted to end the pandemic year with a deep look ahead to the next one. But this ended up being about more than vaccines and viruses, and as much about memory, forgetting, and how we make sense of and learn from disasters.

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
A running theme of my work this year has been the devastating consequences of underfunding and neglecting public health. Which turns out to be a problem when you want to, y’know, vaccinate a country.

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Other countries have done MUCH better at this with a fraction of the resources that the US has. This should prompt a wholesale reevaluation of what preparedness and exceptionalism actually mean.
theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Many folks have felt powerless this year & wondered what they can do. Protecting each other & stopping chains of infection is part of it. But so is our contribution to our collective memory—how we remember this year & what lessons we carry into the next.

theatlantic.com/health/archive…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Ed Yong

Ed Yong Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @edyong209

Ed Yong Profile picture
30 Dec 20
I’m stepping away from pandemic reporting for a few months to finish the book I paused in March. This year has been the most professionally meaningful of my life, but it has also shredded me. It’s been months of continually staring straight into the sun, and I need to blink. 1/
I talked more about this on the Longform podcast: longform.org/posts/longform…

It says something about this year that the prospect of finishing a book now feels like a radical act of self-care. Book-writing: a famously relaxing and restorative activity! A “break”! 😬😬2/
A necessary decision, but not an easy one: Obviously the pandemic is still going on, and will be for some time. I’ll be back in the spring to cover it.

In the meantime, here’s my look at 2021, what it will likely bring & the lessons we need to learn. 3/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Read 4 tweets
Ed Yong Profile picture
29 Dec 20
🚨In my final piece of 2020, I look ahead to Pandemic Year 2--the vaccination rollout, how the virus will react, the lingering societal scars, and the larger lessons we must learn (but risk forgetting) from this horrendous year. 1/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Things are dark now. Hope is on the horizon but so are obstacles.

As one expert said: “Think about next summer as a marker for when we might be able to breathe again. But there’s almost a year’s worth of work that needs to happen in those 6 months.” 2/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Part 1 of this piece is about the challenges of rolling out the most complicated vaccination campaign in US history.

Part 2 looks at the new patchwork that will arise, when some parts of the US are heavily immunized & others aren’t. 3/
theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Read 8 tweets
Ed Yong Profile picture
24 Dec 20
Here are 10 pandemic pieces that I'm especially proud of.

1) On how it came to this.

theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
2) This one from March--the first of the really big pieces, about the likely near- and long-term future of the pandemic.

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
3) On why everything has been so confusing. theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Read 13 tweets
Ed Yong Profile picture
14 Dec 20
🚨I wrote the Atlantic’s next cover story on the COVIDization of science. No other disease has been scrutinized so intensely, by so much combined intellect, in so brief a time. This piece is about both the victories achieved & the weaknesses exposed. 1/

theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
A year ago, zero scientists were studying COVID‑19. Since then, the COVID-19 papers submitted to 1 journal (NEJM) outnumber all Ebola papers ever published. Researchers worked wonders at a time when research was harder than ever to do. 2/

theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
We have effective vaccines against a virus that, a year ago, was still unknown. That is an *astonishing* feat, not least because it validates technologies that will make it easier to build vaccines against future pandemics, too. 3/

theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
Read 10 tweets
Ed Yong Profile picture
5 Dec 20
Well, rewatching Lord of the Rings this year was... different.

Consider BILBO: just wants to finish his damn book; “butter spread over too much bread”; ages dramatically Bilbo Baggins
GANDALF: would rather be doing pretty fireworks; instead has to ride around shouting policy advice at inexplicably reluctant leaders; can’t get a day off even when dead Gandalf the Annoyed
THEODEN: “What can men do against such reckless hate? A THREAD 1/“ Theoden
Read 19 tweets
Ed Yong Profile picture
4 Dec 20
At the Atlantic, the peerless @sarahzhang has been leading our coverage of COVID-19 vaccines. Here's a thread of her amazing work.

1) A great big-picture look at the Moderna & Pfizer vaccines, which also explains mRNA vaccines are. theatlantic.com/health/archive…
2) Here, Sarah looks at the results from the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine trial and why they're a little weirder and more confusing than those from the other two.
theatlantic.com/health/archive…
3) Here, Sarah looks at the challenges posed by the transition between two administrations, and the problems that Biden may face as a result.

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Read 7 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @edyong209 has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @edyong209!

Read all threads by @edyong209