[ad_1]
(HealthDay) – When New York City was the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic last spring in the United States, the nearby Mount Sinai South Nassau hospital was treating more than 400 COVID-19 patients at a time, recalls Dr. Aaron Glatt.
Infectious disease experts had warned for years about the potential for another pandemic, but the scale of that pandemic was unprecedented according to Glatt, who is chief infectious disease officer and epidemiologist at the hospital.
Since then, health experts have provided advice on wearing masks, washing hands and maintaining social distancing, while many businesses and schools have gone virtual to stop the spread of the disease.
So much has changed, but has the pandemic changed people permanently?
The question remains open as to whether surviving the COVID crisis can change Americans’ approach to future infectious diseases.
“I certainly hope so,” Glatt said. “I think you realize how serious an epidemic is when you see it.”
“I think the public may have realized that while we’re very technologically advanced in some ways, just blocking and tackling – washing your hands, masking, socially distancing – can be a lot more effective that some of the high tech stuff that we think is always going to solve all the problems for us, ”he added.
Glatt believes that some behaviors may last longer than others. Wearing masks could play a role in the future, once COVID-19 is under control, but it could be in a crowded subway during flu season, likely not while walking down the street, did he declare.
People may also be more aware of not working sick, Glatt said.
Most people now have a better understanding of how respiratory illness is shared, which has huge implications for other infectious illnesses like the flu, Glatt said.
“I think people will better understand how bacteria and viruses can spread on contact through the fecal-oral route,” Glatt said. “I think people will learn to wash their hands better, understand that just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean it can’t be transmitted.”
New habits
A national survey from Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center, released last week, found that 90% of 2,000 Americans surveyed planned to continue washing their hands and using sanitizers frequently after the pandemic . About 80% said they would continue to avoid crowds. About 72% would continue to wear a mask in public.
The survey suggested that these behaviors would help people overcome their anxiety about returning to public spaces.
One of the clearest examples of the effectiveness of protective measures against infectious diseases is the impact of this behavior on influenza cases this season.
The curve is flat, said Dr Courtney Gidengil, senior medical policy researcher for RAND Corp. and pediatric physician specializing in infectious diseases in Boston. Even in a delayed flu season, there should be more cases now, she says.
There are also fewer cases of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a common childhood infection, Gidengil added.
“I’m sure the public realizes that too,” she said. “It’s not hard to relate that and maybe people can see the masks in a different light after that, when they see their kids not getting sick as often.
Changing behaviors in response to this could mean that parents may be less likely to send children who show symptoms of illness to school and more willing to call those who do, Gidengil said, noting that it would require a support network that doesn’t now. exist for working families.
Awareness has also changed among children.
“We will probably see a future generation growing up with very ingrained and different ideas of how to stay healthy and avoid infections, for better or for worse,” said Gidengil. “I guess the question is, how long will these effects last?”
Before a polio vaccine was developed in the 1950s, epidemics changed people’s habits, but that didn’t last indefinitely, Gidengil said. There is a trend away from hyperware.
“On the flip side, we live in a very different time with social media and messaging amplification,” Gidengil said. “A lot of these things really affect children in a very striking way. They are in this very formative time of their lives.”
Vaccine decisions
As of the end of last week, the United States had more than 27 million cases of COVID-19 and more than 470,000 deaths, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Yet people are already seeing a way out of the pandemic.
Over 46 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have already been administered in the United States, and a third vaccine from Johnson & Johnson is awaiting review for emergency use by the United States Food and Drug Administration .
For some, reluctance to vaccinate and anti-vax sentiment persist. Living through the pandemic is unlikely to change the attitudes of people who are firmly anti-vaccines, said Dr Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and attending physician in the division of infectious diseases at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia.
Offit highlighted a recent protest at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, where protesters blocked the entrance to prevent others from getting vaccinated.
“It tells you everything you need to know about the anti-vaccine movement. For all of their talk about letting people make informed choices, they were basically making a choice for people who were trying to get vaccinated to avoid a vaccine. deadly pandemic “, Says Offit.
The past few months, however, may have an impact on people who were simply skeptical of vaccines.
“People are desperate for this vaccine. They see this vaccine as it is, which is our way out of this pandemic,” Offit said.
“If we didn’t want to learn from this pandemic, then I don’t know what will teach us,” he added. “This virus has crushed us.”
A Gallup poll released last week found that about 71% of American adults now say they’re ready to get the shot. This increased by 50% in September, before the vaccines became available.
The policy, which has affected the behavior of Americans, from mask wear to social distancing, has also had some impact on willingness to receive the vaccine. The poll found that 91% of Democrats have expressed a willingness to be vaccinated, while only 51% of Republicans have.
Gidengil said she saw parallels with the COVID-19 vaccine and previous research on the acceptance of the H1N1 vaccine during this 2009 pandemic. RAND then found that the greatest predictor of whether a person had received this vaccine was whether she had received a flu shot in past years.
“We have found that in general, once a person gets vaccinated, it is part of their behavior,” Gidengil said. “We don’t really know why, but it’s probably heartwarming with the experience.”
Future investments
Prior to COVID 2018, Gidengil authored a RAND article that asked, “Does the United States Need to Strengthen the Infectious Disease Care System?”
The authors concluded was a desperate need for such a system of care, as there has been a dismantling and unblocking of public health infrastructure here in the United States, Gidengil said.
“It’s hard to make these investments when you can’t see the result so immediately, but I think it can show how much these investments are worth,” Gidengil said.
Until 2020, America’s collective memory of the infectious disease threat was fading. Before COVID-19, the country’s most recent experience with a pandemic dates back to the H1N1 flu epidemic in 2009, which killed about 12,500 people in the United States in one year, according to the CDC. The devastating influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 was much deadlier, but also much older.
Ebola reached epidemic proportions in 2014 in West Africa, but only four people have been diagnosed with the disease in the United States, according to the CDC.
But then came COVID-19. The novel coronavirus pandemic has now “touched every person’s life in one way or another,” said Dr Amesh Adalja, senior researcher at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore. “All aspects of modern life have been disrupted by it. I think they realize that it is important to think of infectious disease threats, not as something from a bygone era, but as a clear danger. and present. ”
Adalja hopes people have earned the respect of their local public health agencies and what they do to keep people healthy, and to lobby for the resources they need.
He would also like people to insist that the federal government has a more sustainable approach to tackling infectious disease threats.
“I think that will be the biggest lesson, is that this is something that they should demand that the government be competent in because when you look at the pandemic, the bigger story is that it is a failure of the government, ”Adalja said. . “I think this should be something that the average American finds intolerable and demands a solution, and holds the people who made these mistakes to account.”
Follow the latest news on the coronavirus epidemic (COVID-19)
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers detailed information on COVID-19.
Copyright © 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Quote: Health care after COVID: A new focus on infectious disease (2021, February 16) retrieved February 16, 2021 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-02-health-covid-focus-infectious-diseases.html
This document is subject to copyright. Other than fair use for study or private research, no part may be reproduced without written permission. The content is provided for information only.
[ad_2]
Source link
