Thread by @CorsIAQ

1/ I hope that we have collectively learned a lot (a very long list) from this pandemic. I fear that many have not.

2/ The overwhelming obvious: Vaccines reduce risk of hospitalization and death. Reducing inhalation dose of virus-laden aerosol particles reduces risk of infection, hospitalization and death.

3/ Masks, increased ventilation, appropriate filtration all reduce inhalation dose, and therefore are important weapons in reducing risk of infection, hospitalization and death.

4/ Infrastructure to sustain healthy indoor environments is woefully inadequate in too many schools across the US.

5/ The more subtle:

Never assume away the worst-case transmission pathway without evidence, & therefore leave the public with their guard woefully down for months.

6/ There is a gargantuan need to increase and improve STEM education at all levels in the US. Wow,
has this been obvious!

7/ Science communication needs to be improved, including and understanding of how to reach audiences through the complex web of communication media available today and into the future.

8/ Solutions to complex problems cannot be driven by single disciplines. Addressing this pandemic would have been for more effective if the PH & medical communities were teamed with aerosol scientists, engineers, building scientists, communication scientists, IH, & more.

9/ Multi-disciplinary collaboration is not easy. We stress it in universities, and even then it is sometimes difficult outside of crisis situations. But innovation & solutions are catalyzed when those with different but relevant expertise work work together effectively.

10/ I hope that we practice and learn to be better at multi-disciplinary collaboration in the future. While universities often stress the importance of multi-disciplinary collaboration, we need to step-up and reimagine how we can be more effective at doing so.

This is just a start ..... the list of what we should have learned to date is very long.