 WED, MAR 16, 2022
It seems like everyone is trying to put Covid in the rearview mirror these days. New York City's mayor lifted vaccination mandates for businesses and events last month, while the CDC recently issued guidance suggesting more than 90% of Amercians now live in an area where they can stop wearing face masks.
But the lifting of restrictions doesn't mean we're out of the woods yet – especially with the U.S. still experiencing a seven-day moving average of more than 1,000 Covid deaths per day. That's why it was interesting to read my colleague Mike Winters' coverage of a new report from an independent group of doctors and public health policy experts which outlines a road map to get Americans back to their "pre-pandemic routines and lives."
The experts say that Covid is "here to stay" and warn that "omicron won't be the last variant." But they also want to see deaths decline to fewer than 165 per day, a level on par with the common flu.
So what will it take to get back to pre-pandemic life?
One of the keys to achieving the "next normal," as the experts have dubbed it, will be developing more therapeutic drugs that can prevent serious illness and hospitalization in people who have been infected.
They also called for a centralized "information and communication center" that would oversee the sharing of data about infectious diseases. The new entity would also communicate when and where you should wear masks, if Covid-19 cases surge.
Whether we get to a "next normal" anytime soon remains to be seen. The experts say the two therapeutic drugs, developed by Pfizer and Merck, aren't enough and have called for a wider array of treatment options. And President Biden's new "Test to Treat" program, which intends to offer free antiviral pills to people who test positive for Covid at major pharmacies, federally qualified health centers and long-term care facilities, will initially only be available at a few hundred pharmacies.
Read more about the end of the pandemic in Mike's full report.
Here are some other highlights from this week in Make It.
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