geoff: After more than 3 years,
the covid-19 public health
emergency has ended.
Thanks to vaccines, testing and
treatment, we are in a much
better place and deaths are at
their lowest level since March
2020.
But concerns over how the
federal government will respond
to new variants or even a
serious new epidemic remain.
William brangham has our look.
William: More than 1.1 million
Americans have died of covid
since the pandemic began three
years ago.
For those who lost loved ones
early on, this moment where the
country has declared an end of
the public health emergency, is
a complicated time.
Tracy: I am the wife and widow
of a husband who passed away
from covid September 23, 2020.
He died of something he should
not have died of.
I know people think it is over
but it is not.
Going out there in the public
and being out there has scared
me so much.
Because what he went through, I
was not there when he passed
away, I cannot be there.
That was the beginning of the
pandemic.
I could not touch him.
I could not say goodbye.
I am still dealing with it.
No timeframe on death for
someone you love.
I live with this everyday.
I had to go to therapy because
of the death of my husband.
I live with this everyday and
they don't get it.
Some people that it has not
affected them, they go on with
everyday life because they think
they are invincible but they are
not.
It could happen to any of us.
Max: My father is max osceola
junior, we are a member of the
Seminole county of Florida.
He accomplished a lot for us.
My father passed away roughly
two years ago, October, at the
beginning of covid.
My mother was with my father for
50 years, they were high school
sweethearts.
Their life was intertwined in a
way that was unimaginable.
That's what it is about,
understanding life and moving
forward in the sense of how can
we honor my father?
I think society has already
opened up in a sense and the
government is reacting to that.
We are better prepared for other
emergencies.
Covid is not going away.
The genie is out of the bottle.
I'm sure in the future there
will be another outbreak and
hopefully we respond
accordingly.
My family has been able to honor
my father, we have been able to
have a little more closure.
We are very fortunate for the
father we had.
There was a lifetime of love.
William: Many of the federal
programs set up in response to
the pandemic are now ending with
the expiration of the emergency
order.
So where does that leave us?
For a closer look at that, we
are joined again by Dr. Jennifer
Nuzzo.
Professor of epidemiology and
director of the pandemic center
at brown university school of
public health.
Great to have you back on the
newshour.
We have been talking on and off
for three years of this pandemic
, through some of the worst
periods of time, and now at the
light that seems to be at the
end of the tunnel.
Where'd you see this moment we
are at right now?
Dr. Nuzzo: I think as you said,
it is a complicated time.
Covid, the acute emergency is
over, the emergency declaration
is over but the tolls of covid,
including the loss of life
continue.
In my view, those tolls remain
unacceptably high and really
point to the need for continuing
to work to reduce those tolls
and also, crucially, to make
sure we are never again left as
vulnerable to a virus as this
one made us.
William: To that point, the
virus is still with us.
Do you think we have the right
eyes on this situation right
now?
Are we doing enough monitoring
so that if a new variant emerges
if cases were to tick up again,
, we would be able to see it in
time?
Dr. Nuzzo: I'm quite worried
about our abilities to pick up
future emergencies.
That may include a future covid
variant, but it probably also
includes other viruses that we
have yet to discover that could
emerge and calls pandemic
threats.
Much of that progress is at
risk now with the end of the
emergency.
We are scaling back the types of
data that we're collecting, and
that generally gives us less
insights into what's going on
with covid.
But it also means that we will
have less ability to pick up new
pandemic threats.
And so the point that I really
want to make clear is that while
the acute covid emergency has
ended, our vulnerability to
events like covid has not
changed unless we decide to take
action to make it change.
That requires improving our data
along with a lot of other things
that we still have yet to do.
William: As you well know, there
is this ongoing fight in
congress over some of the things
that you are describing here.
What do you think are the key
priorities that we ought to be
focused on, even as we "Wind
down" the end of the pandemic?
Dr. Nuzzo: First of all the fact
, that we are having fights over
pandemic preparedness at this
point after witnessing the loss
of a million Americans is to me
unfathomable.
I just don't know how much more
we need to endure in order to
make the investment in
preparedness worth it.
But in terms of what we should
be doing with the resources that
we have, is first of all, we
have to be fixing our data.
You know, for most of the
pandemic, we were just trying to
triangulate our way to the
truth.
We had huge blind spots and
understanding what was happening
with covid, who was being
affected worse by it.
What sorts of activities and
places were driving
transmission.
How covid was affecting us.
We didn't have a complete
picture in all communities.
That was one big problem, but
also we're not done in terms of
treating covid and also thinking
about how to make ourselves less
vulnerable to severe illness
from other respiratory threats.
So one thing I would really like
to see our -- are new vaccines
that produced longer lasting
immunity and possibly prevent
infection.
That would be great.
Not sure if that's
scientifically possible, but
absolutely worth the investment
in the science.
Making sure that we have the
best possible treatments that we
can not just for covid but
thinking about future
infections.
And then also, crucially, we
need to figure out what sorts of
other measures we want to put
into place in our communities to
reduce our vulnerability, not
just to this virus and other
viruses that we know continue to
threaten us year in and year to
like influenza and rsv.
We had big problems with that in
the fall.
But thinking ahead to future
threats.
It is possible to make
investments now.
To put into place a bolstered
infrastructure and plans that
can be ready to snap into place
such that when the next pandemic
threat arises, we don't have to
have our lives upended in the
way that covid did.
We have seen progress being made
in terms of tackling other
public health threats.
I'd like to think of public
health threats like the way we
think about other recurring
hazards like fires.
If we reduce our social
vulnerabilities, we reduce our
community wide vulnerabilities
to these threats.
We can go about our lives
largely not thinking about them,
but with enhanced safety against
them.
William: On the issue of long
covid, we know there are still
millions of people suffering
with that and on some level of
, the end of the emergency
declaration doesn't mean much to
them because they are still and
continue to suffer.
Do you think we're doing enough
research to understand what is
happening with that ailment and
how to help those people?
Dr. Nuzzo: This is something
that I think we have not done
right by these patients.
These patients are suffering
quite a bit and they haven't
gotten the kind of resources
they need to help them.
I want to stress not just about
covid.
It is possible that what we are
seeing in patients who are
affected by covid could be
something that we could
experience with other infectious
diseases.
So while the case numbers of
covid maybe diminishing, the
need to understand how viruses
can affect us in the long term.
It's an important point that we
should be investigating so that
we don't have X Y and Z when we
think of other viruses that we
may encounter or experience
large outbreaks.
William: Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo,
brown university school of
public health.
Always good to see you.