Thread by @ASlavitt

COVID Update: There’s always a way to do it right.

When we do the payoff is huge. 1/

Let’s start with Merck. Merck historically pays a lot of attention to global health equity.

As they roll out their highly effective anti-viral, molnupiravir ,they have already contracted with 5 generic manufacturers in India with records for effective global distribution. 2/

Poorer countries around the world and some foundations report that Merck has been coordinating to make distribution there as good or better than in wealthy nations.

Merck donates other drugs to poor nations that treat horrible illnesses where most other pharma companies don’t.3/

All of this was supposed to happen with vaccines. We are now approaching vaccinating half of the globe & Africa is still at about 5%.

It’s not that we’re not capable of doing it right. We just choose not to. 4/

I just visited France where I had to show this RFID to get on a plane, a train, enter a restaurant or a bar or a hotel.

In the weeks they’ve been doing it, it’s already a habit for everyone, adding about 10 seconds to every entry. 5/

It felt quite safe to be just about everywhere, in part knowing the government & businesses & people all around you cared.

Of course you can remain unvaccinated in France. You just can’t go about infecting people. 6/

Cases are down 80% from the early August peak in France. And it feels more durable than your typical wave in the US.

But, of course, there’s a giant cost to all this for France… 7/

The massively negative reaction of the French public. Boy do they hate having virtually no deaths and getting back to life and business. 8/

Most of the US acts like that version of life would be only slightly better than the Gestapo taking your home & imprisoning you.

There being an obvious slippery slope from saving lives to mass murder. 9/

It’s not that we don’t know how to do it right. So far, we have just chosen not to. 10/

Google is banning advertising that denies the effects of climate change & YouTube commits to taking down all misinformation about vaccines. 11/

2/3 of unvaccinated believe one of five falsehoods perpetuated about vaccines. And most say they receive their information from social media.

Things we know are false— like the vaccines interfering with fertility & causing COVID. 12/

This information is removable by people who understand … well let’s see … technology and the Internet and how to do searches.

Facebook claims it is helpless when it comes to getting rid of misinformation. 13/

After all the skills involve seem to be:

an understanding of the information on their website

knowing right from wrong

giving a shit

We know how to do this right. Some of us choose not to. 14/

We are 22 months into the pandemic. We know what to do and it’s not crippling.

Sometimes it takes effort. Other times it takes political courage. Sometimes it takes pressuring people doing wrong. 15/

Some are too tired of it all. They want to expend no more effort. Just move on. They will be dealing with fits & starts for a long time.

Others are willing to put in a little bit of intelligent effort upfront so we can all safely live. 16/

At this point we can’t pretend it doesn’t matter. Or that we don’t know how.

The good news is no matter how many mistakes we’ve made…how many lives we’ve lost unnecessarily…how many chances we’ve missed… today we always have a chance to prevent the next losses. /end