“I’m officially pointing to a national emergency,” Trump said that day.
Six months after that statement, 200,000 Americans are believed to have died from the virus.
During this period, the clinic of the new coronavirus and the disease it causes has evolved considerably, but much remains to be said that scientists and doctors are unaware of the new coronavirus and how to treat patients who are inflamed by it.
Dozens of candidate vaccines are being developed in countries around the world, however, despite global investments, an effective vaccine is unlikely to be approved and distributed before next year, according to fitness experts.
Without a vaccine or a reliable remedy for COVID-19, the United States has been based on fundamental public fitness measures, such as social distance and masks, to curb the spread of the virus, but while those efforts have certainly stored lives, so have they. strained the economy and tested Americans’ willingness to sign long-term.
Prolonged isolation, unemployment, and depression have also wreaked havoc on the American psyche. Americans, especially those who are deficient and/or have suffered the trauma of the pandemic, report increasingly feeling depressed, according to survey data.
The pandemic, which has disproportionately upset and killed frontline staff and other people of color, has had political football in the last six months. The mask has evolved from a medical product to a symbol of political affiliation. Lines have been drawn between scientists, and conspiracy theorists about the death of the virus and an “infodemic” of false data has proliferated online.
But surprisingly, given the multitude of sinister points involved, public fitness experts don’t see the stage in the United States as desperate. There’s a way forward, they insist. But this will imply widespread adherence to some of the difficult measures americans have departed from in recent months and the uprooting of federal fitness agencies’ policies.
Although many unanswered questions remain about the new coronavirus and COVID-19, the virus clinic and its transmission has evolved since March.
While COVID-19 was originally a concept for mainly attacking the respiratory formula, we now know that the disease can affect almost every organ in the body, adding the heart, brain, vascular formula and nerve formula. safe from infection, and while young people are less likely to have serious side effects from the disease, epidemics in schools and sleep camps have dispelled the concept that young people are immune to the virus. in the same way when frontline staff and other people of color fell disproportionately ill and died of COVID-19.
There is still more to report on the long-term effects of contracting the disease. Doctors do not know what is causing the residual symptoms in other people called “long distance” or other people who have recovered from COVID-19 and who months later are feeling ill health. In New York City, Mount Sinai Health System has opened a post-COVID care center to help long-term carriers get back to normal.
After months of trial and error in the country’s cities and outdoor protests, experts agree that the virus is rarely transmitted outdoors.
However, giant gatherings, especially those without a mask or social distancing, remain a fear both on the inside and out. A motorcycle rally of another 300,000 people in South Dakota and a wedding of another 62 people in Maine triggered outbreaks of COVID-19 this summer. In any case, other people matched up close, maximum without a mask.
Meanwhile, the world has insisted on creating a vaccine for the spread of the virus. The United States has refused to participate in a global program to distribute a prospective vaccine equally, opting instead to continue alone. developed a manual for local states and fitness facilities to help distribute a possible vaccine once it is in development. No vaccine has completed the clinical trials required for publicly approved use and it is not known when this approval could arrive.
While President Trump warned that a vaccine could be in a position as soon as this fall, scientists are skeptical about the timing and even after a vaccine is passed, it will take “six to nine months” to get the entire American population vaccinated, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield told a Senate panel this month.
Depression and anxiety as a result of widespread traumatic events, such as herbal disasters, terrorist attacks and civil unrest, are well documented in the clinical literature, but even the researchers who read the trauma were surprised by the ubiquitous effect that turns out that COVID-19 is behaving. in the American psyche.
The percentage of Americans who reported symptoms of depression has more than tripled since the onset of the pandemic, according to a study published last month at JAMA Network Open. In prepandemic surveys, 9% of respondents reported depressive symptoms, according to the researchers. Once the pandemic occurred, this percentage increased to 28% of respondents.
According to Catherine Ettman, director of the new study, these rates of depression were higher than those seen by investigators after Hurricane Katrina, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, or the widespread civil unrest in Hong Kong. in depressive symptoms, said Ettman, a PhD student at Brown University’s School of Public Health who works at Boston University’s School of Public Health.
“This is COVID and the concern and anxiety around COVID, as well as the dramatic economic consequences,” he added.
In fact, deficient Americans with few social resources are more likely to report symptoms of depression compared to 28% of the general population, 47% of others with relatives earning less than $20,000, and 41% of those with family savings of less than $5,000 Additional stressors such as job losses , the death of a friend or circle of COVID-19 family members or monetary disorders were also similar to the emotions of depression. 43% of respondents who were highly exposed to traumatic stressors, the pandemic reported symptoms of depression, the researchers found. Because the COVID-19 epidemic in the United States hit other parts of the country at other times, researchers were unable to examine regional differences in depression.
Suicide rates in the United States were on the rise before COVID-19. Experts are involved in that the pandemic can only increase rates. millions of excess weapons purchased between March and May compared to what would normally have been purchased, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s background check.
A current affairs paper published this summer in the American Journal of Epidemiology proved the link between monetary tension and suicide. In an observation on the investigation, Ettman noted that the pandemic “presents an exclusive set of exposures to threats to populations, which can lead to a building in suicide. “
There are four dimensions of monetary tension (debt, unemployment, beyond homelessness and declining incomes) that are related to upcoming suicide attempts, Ettman said. Then he came to a sobering conclusion. ” With populations facing record unemployment, economic recession and falling wages, we can anticipate a build-up of suicides as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic,” he writes.
The list of mistakes critics say the U. S. government has made is well documented, adding a slow and disparate state effort to a national plan; combined messages and politicization of key protection measures such as masks; Lack of checks and non-public hedging devices for frontline workers; and the withdrawal of investments from US public fitness infrastructure. America for decades.
Many states and local governments have also hesitated in their reaction to the coronavirus, delaying restrictions, pushing for reopening despite the fact that instances are not trimming and are reluctant to require masks.
President Trump and the White House have pushed for the country’s reopening following the spring uptick in the virus, saying that the economic damage of the closure, in addition to leaving millions unemployed, outweighed other considerations. They also largely attributed the increase in the number of instances to a greater number of tests, which they promoted with early measures such as China’s restriction.
They also stated that states were receiving the materials they needed, adding non-public protection enthusiasts and appliances (PPE), governors disputed this claim.
Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who also criticized for his slowness in accelerating testing in the early days of the outbreak, admitted that “there were errors” in an earlier interview with ABC News. .
“Yes, we failed. We’re making our Array,” he said. ” We review to make judgments possible. “
Federal public fitness officials and state and local leaders have sent combined messages about issues such as masking that can and deserve to be evaluated. CDC, for example, has been recommending a mask since the spring, but first of all warned that the general public did not want to.
President Trump, who hesitated to wear a mask in public even though his public fitness officials insisted he was saving lives, began dressing once in a while, even though he continues to question its effectiveness.
At an ABC News event on the city corridor Tuesday, Trump said he would not replace his reaction to the pandemic. “I think we’ve done a wonderful job,” he added.
It won’t be easy, but public fitness experts say there’s a way to change course. The way forward for America is through “universal adherence” to masking, physical estating, hand washing, and a moratorium on giant gatherings, they say. Testing, tracking and isolating other people inflamed with the virus is imperative and will have to be prioritized.
Cheryl Healton, dean of the New York University School of Global Public Health, “The tests deserve to be fast, flexible, and widely available. ” Consistent “A user deserves not to die because he lives in a state with a governor who is not in science,” she added.
Dr. Jennifer Bouey, RAND’s epidemiologist and senior policy researcher, needs the United States to diversify its intervention efforts beyond vaccine development. long-term have an effect on the infection,” he warned.
In light of last week’s Political reports, which revealed that politically appointed members of the Department of Health and Human Services communications team were legal in manipulating reports prepared through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, experts say it is even more to lose CDC. Since the influence of the White House, HHS Undersecretary of Public Affairs Michael Caputo has taken an HSS license.
“In fact, he undermined the reaction and reputation of this agency,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, principal investigator at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Safety, on political influence at the CDC. Scientists consider the CDC procedure and weekly reports to be “sacrosanct, almost Writing,” Adalja said. “This underscores the fact that this is not the general way to deal with the CDC,” he added. “If we need to take control of the epidemic, we will have to repair the full strength and authority to the CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION. “
Healton also deplored CDC politicization. “The CDC is a sign of trust, it is less so now, tragically,” he said.
Tune in to ABC at 1 p. m. ET and ABC News Live at four p. m. ET each and every day of the week for the special policy of the new coronavirus with the entire ABC News team, adding the latest news, context and analysis.