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Florin's avatar

Some of the biggest mistakes with the pandemic response have been hinted at but they haven't been discussed quite as much or as clearly as they should be.

Big Mistake #1 was that infectious disease experts failed to discover that (most likely) all, fast-spreading, respiratory pandemics are driven by airborne transmission via aerosols, despite having had plenty of time and resources at their disposal to find out about this crucial, elementary, and not-hard-to-determine fact.

Big Mistake #2 was that most of the experts failed to recommended switching to respirators ASAP, even after it was becoming fairly obvious that cloth and surgical masks were ineffective at stopping the variants.

Big Mistake #3 is that respirator use still isn't widely recommended in countries that don't have widespread access to vaccines, even though respirators could be rapidly deployed and be just as (or more) effective than vaccines.

Big Mistake #4 is not holding these experts accountable for their mistakes.

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Otto Depenbrok's avatar

Hi Zeynep,

1) I did not see any reference to this, or other similar if exist: https://www.aier.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/10.1.1.552.1109.pdf

I think that any Covid retrospective should begin with asking why we ignored everything written 10+ years prior to this pandemic. There's seemingly no recognition on that failure by every public official, health or otherwise.

2) Your second point is we could have emulated Taiwan. Outside of islands (NZ and Hawaii did similar), with limited access points and better ability to isolate/test entry and exits, this is likely an impossible ask and I dare say not a serious suggestion. To this point, the document above specifically says, paraphrasing, "screening passengers or closing hubs are not recommended".

Do generally appreciate the thoughts, particularly on better mitigation strategies (keep outside open!) and think globally.

Thanks,

Otto

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