A public health update on COVID-19

"Over the last 100 years, the U.S. has had to respond to five avian flu pandemics. The most severe was the 1918 avian influenza infecting 1/3 of the world’s population and killing 650,000 Americans. It was also the last time wide-spread containment, mitigation, and isolation strategies were used in the U.S. Seldom mentioned about the 1918 pandemic are the three 'waves' or cycles of resurgence and the subsequent deaths associated with them, especially in cities and towns that failed to implement timely mitigation restrictions or rescinded them too quickly.

When considering the rescindment of mitigation restrictions, a bottom-to-top approach (local-state-federal governments) must be followed precisely to account for the kinetics of the virus. It is the virus that will truly dictate when American lives can return to some semblance of normal. The goal is to taper restrictions to avoid a cycle of new COVID-19 outbreaks and thus minimize the similar cycle of deaths, which followed in the 1918 pandemic."

Nicolas K. Fletcher is a public health student.

He shares his story and discusses his KevinMD article, "Strategies for lifting COVID-19 mitigation restrictions." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/04/strategies-for-lifting-covid-19-mitigation-restrictions.html)