Thestudy from the NBERfound that these restrictions not only failed to save lives, and greatly exacerbated the destruction of the working class but have in fact resulted in anincreaseof excess mortality. The guidance failed to acknowledge that people who don't have symptoms can spread the virus and didn't say anything about wearing masks. "From what I am hearing now, it likely will be 12 to 18 months before a vaccine is available.". For more on this, and instructions, click here. Also in June, TFTP covered the findings of anMIT scientist who reporteda data analysis of the economic impact of the lockdown noting that whilst it played a key contributing role to the sharp rise of unemployment, it did not make a significant reduction in deaths. Americans should continue practicing strict personal hygiene, including washing hands regularly for at least 20 seconds at a time and wiping down surfaces in the home often. Even if the rate of hospitalization is significantly lower than previous variants (for which there is some evidence), a small percentage of a big number can be a big number. As of Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there had been 647 cases and 25 deaths in the country. Should we be canceling classes? The 7-day average daily number of positive cases fell from 1,906 on Aug. 13 to 1,859 on Aug. 16. "As of today, we are on a course to double the number of confirmed cases in the US every two to three days.". In Italy, for example the country with the worst COVID-19 outbreak outside of China confirmed cases doubled from 10,000 to 20,000 in just four days (March 11 President Trump continues to cut through every piece of unnecessary Washington red tape that may hinder response efforts, and he is continuing to make every Federal resource available to those who need it. ", Dr. Deborah Birx, who served as the White House Covid-19 Task Force coordinator under Trump, offered a glimpse last week into the early confusion over the science. "If we can get all of America to pitch in for the next 15 days, we can flatten the curve. - Dr. Jerome Adams, U.S. when did 14 days to flatten the curve start. For donating, please view the following page by clicking here. We ravaged convenience stores for hand sanitizer and Clorox wipes. If he had been honest from the start, Americans would have understood and industry would have stepped up and made masks just like they did with hand sanitizer. The virus is spreading, were are told, including widely throughout the vaccinated population, because of the unvaccinated who are now dirty non-citizens., On Tuesday, French President Macron gave an interview to the La Parisien, in which he dehumanized the unvaccinated and urged other citizens to hate them, likening them to their worst enemies., I am not about pissing off the French people, Macron told the readers of Le Parisien. 1600 Daily is the White Houses evening newsletter. The message took off. This is historical material frozen in time. So its the top priority right now that we bend the curve.. Ending the Pandemic: Exponential Growth and Decay The truth is we have no choice. While a vaccine and treatments are developed, strong actions must be taken. While 74% of adults said they were aware of the chart, this awareness did not correlate with their intention to engage in social distancing or their belief in whether interventions could control the pandemic. We also want to express great appreciation to the American people. None of it made much difference against the virus, it turned out. Let's hope our government has learned that lesson as we move into year two. After all, as unemployment numbers skyrocketed andstate and local government budgets cratered, lockdown until vaccine didnt seem like such a viable strategy anymore. Former President Trump announced his "15 days to slow the spread" campaign one year ago, which urged Americans to stay home to combat the coronavirus pandemic. This suggests that the flatten-the-curve message might have armed them with the knowledge they needed to draw their own conclusions about social distancing measures without needing to rely as strongly on trusting experts. Privacy Policy Over the last two years, one of the largest power grabs in the history of the world has taken place as fearful citizens willingly surrendered their rights to the state for the promise of safety. Although it has not happened by design, the US is moving toward a Sweden model. The time to act is clearly now. One of the most heavily vaccinated places on the planet, withthestrictest vaccine mandates in the country, New York City, accounted for nearly 10% of all cases in the U.S. You do that by trying to interfere with the natural flow of the outbreak.. For the latest coronavirus case total and death toll, see. If intense lockdown protocols were an effective way to mitigate against infection and death rates, the data would show states such as California and New York with much better outcomes than Texas and Florida. However, at the national level, it seems the Biden Administration is doubling down on the status quo of shutdowns, social distancing, and masks, as the primary solution to COVID-19. A year later, Trumps 15 days to slow the spread - CNBC Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories, The Trump administration has released a 15-day plan to, The plan involves asking healthy Americans to avoiding social gatherings and. This excerpt sums it up nicely: "Telling Americans to wear masks when theyre unnecessary undermines efforts to persuade more people to wear masks where they are vital Banning college students from outdoor walks wont make them stay inside their dorm rooms for weeks on end. ". Stay up to date with what you want to know. When the WHO declared COVID a pandemic, across the world the strategy was to "flatten the curve" of infections rising over time. Canadian PM Trudeau followed suit the following day and told the citizens of Canada that they need to be angry at the unvaccinated for spreading covid, using his pulpit to dehumanize and threaten people for their personal medical choices. In the early days of the COVID-19 panicback in mid-Marcharticles began to appear pushing the idea of flattening the curve (theWashington Postran an article called Flatten the Curve on March 14). Trudeau blames unvaccinated for everything pic.twitter.com/vhw9QqvsmL, Roberto Wakerell-Cruz (@Robertopedia) January 5, 2022. So maybe its time to revive flatten the curve. Maybe emphasizing that the rampant spread of the virus means a strain on hospitals and, crucially, on health-care workers will serve as an incentive for people to take steps such as masking that would prevent their mild infection from spreading to other people. WebThe first case of COVID-19 in Germany was reported 987 days ago on January 26, 2020. 'Flattening the curve may be the worlds best bet to slow - STAT "That is where we should focus now.". Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox. Numbers: Has NYC started flattening the curve Again, weve seen that increases in coronavirus infections have, in fact, strained intensive care units since the pandemic began. On March 16, 2020, one year ago today, President Donald Trump announced a fifteen-day effort to "slow the spread" of COVID-19. Predictably, they have ramped up the scapegoating of the unvaccinated. That means that we know we should be doing it. Line shows 7-day moving average of new cases per day in this state. pic.twitter.com/wHYFL5r1wj, Matt Agorist (@MattAgorist) December 26, 2021. A week ago, the Trump administration released a 15-day plan to slow the spread of the coronavirus in the US. In the future, she added, social-distancing recommendations might be less aggressive than they are now but they're unlikely to go away for at least a year. Anthony Fauci had just lied to Congress about his views on COVID-19. Checkout the memes below. But the idea that everyone will sit at home until a vaccine is found has at the moment fallen out of favor except in the most dogmatically leftist areas. Much like after 9/11, where the government leveraged an act of terror to seize unprecedented power in the form of the Patriot Act, we have allowed the government to go even further in the name of public health. Have we flattened the curve in the US? - Johns Hopkins We are supposed to applaud the notion that if we behave the government will grant us rights we already have five months from now? contact-us@uc.wisc.edu, 2023 Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System, DOWNLOAD IMAGE: https://uwmadison.box.com/v/flatten-curve, CDC / The Economist / Drew Harris / Nan Li, a 2007 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The Economist printed a modified version of the chart, Drew Harris adapted The Economists chart to share on Twitter, Survey: Many still find it hard to stay home during pandemic, worry about mental health during isolation, Public Health Madison & Dane County releases new orders requiring face coverings, UW experts design masks for campus from scratch, https://uwmadison.box.com/v/flatten-curve. Not only on the individuals who end up not getting sick but all of the people that they would have ended up infecting. On Fox News this week, Nicole Saphier, also a radiologist, argued that it is time to move forward and allow this mild infection to circulate so we can continue to build that hybrid immunity, meaning immunity obtained through vaccination and through infection. On Sunday, the president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, James Bullard, told Bloomberg that the US unemployment rate could surge to 30% in the coming months. https://t.co/nTz6UMX8yL, Matt Agorist (@MattAgorist) January 2, 2022. Manage the Curve (Thanks Vijay!) And were feeling silly, he said, noting people still feel self-conscious bumping elbows instead of shaking hands. The answer for many is no for a variety of reasons. At the time, as city and state officials rushed to implement restrictions to curb the outbreak. Dear Mrs Branswell, Chan School of Public Health have looked at what U.S. hospitals might endure if Wuhan-scale spread occurred in this country. The WHO now endorses the Swedish model, which isbased on increasing healthcare capacity while relying primarily on voluntary social distancing. Similarly, in Colorado,during an April 1 briefing, GovernorJared Polis stated that when it comes to COVID-19his policy is stamping this out, and claimed that mandatory social distancing could not be eased until total cases were falling. Dot corresponds to most recent day. The initiative should not have been tied to a timeline, she said, but instead to a specific task like reducing daily new infections to a certain level. But that is not all. Well need 30 years to reach sufficient immunity. This Project is supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF). Theres no better way to protect your family and your community than by arming yourself with accurate, up-to-date information. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-march-15-31-2020-critical-time-contain-covid-19-us-khvatkov/, We went from almost no lockdowns to daily lockdowns: The mental health crisis inside California womens prisons. The notion that the curve of this outbreak could be flattened began to gain credence after China took the extraordinary step of locking down tens of millions of people days in advance of the Lunar New Year, to prevent the virus from spreading around the country from Wuhan, the city where the outbreak appears to have started. "At the end of the 15 day period, we will make a decision as to which way we want to go.". Search interest in the term plateaued at the end of May 2020 and then basically stopped after that August. Flatten the curve was still used as a slogan, but its meaning had changed. "In retrospect, I do think in February there were a significant number of undetected infections taking place, and we were scrambling to try and identify them.". The U.S. is nearly halfway through a 15-day plan to flatten the curve and reduce the incidence of coronavirus. Meeting outside, opening windows and wearing face coverings did far more. It is a viral pneumonia that is far more contagious and deadly than the flu. US Halfway Through 15-Day Plan to 'Flatten Curve - VOA Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis. These facts have led me to the following conclusions. Some of the early tests the CDC developed and shipped were faulty, and only a limited group of Americans were granted access to them. More than 70% of respondents said they were very likely to engage in social distancing, while about 40% thought that the pandemic could be brought under control with these interventions. Indeed, this mass suffering has already begun in many parts of the world. Hospitals in the north of the country, which the virus first took root, are filled beyond capacity, he said, and may soon face the nightmarish dilemma of having to decide who to try to save. Has the Philippines really flattened the curve Countries and regions that have been badly hit by the virus report hospitals that are utterly swamped by the influx of sick people struggling to breathe. One public-health expert said social distancing should be enforced until a vaccine is developed in 12 to 18 months. Many over 50 years in i.e. In one of her first public appearances since leaving her role in the White House, Birx said there were doctors "from credible universities who came to the White House with these opposite opinions.". But with the intense focus on vaccines that has followed the deep politicization of the pandemic, that argument has often been explicitly rejected. The emergency declaration will give healthcare providers on the front lines of this pandemic the flexibility they need to respond. And on June 22, aHarvard University studyreiterated the fact that while this policy did not save lives it decimated the economy; while modern robber barons such as Zuckerberg, Gates, and Bezos saw their portfolios expand exponentially. Despite the snark now, if the goal of American health authorities in March 2020 was to flatten the curve, then they were successful. Who wouldve ever thought? That is what the curve represents. Sweden has put in place a very strong public health policy, Mike Ryan said, but unlike many other countries has chosen to rely on its relationship with its citizenry and trust them to self-regulate. No higher priority than the health of the American people, Listen to and follow the directions of your. A look back reveals how little was known about the virus, public health specialists said. This chart became the visual mantra that defined the initial pandemic response in the U.S., says Nan Li, a professor of life sciences communication at UWMadison who led the research. Until then, only minimal essential activities will be allowed. Thus, on April 2, Anthony Fauci, one of the lead bureaucrats on the White Houses COVID-19 advisory commission insisted that mandatory social distancingcould not be eased until further notice: If we get to the part of the curve where it goes down to essentially no new cases, no deaths for a period of time, I think it makes sense that you have to relax social distancing, [Fauci] added. But the reality is that with state and local laboratories in the country still getting up to speed with how to test for this infection, the full extent of spread is not known. Early on, we were told one of the most challenging aspects of COVID-19 was that individuals could spread the virus even if they showed no symptoms. While watching the spread of the chart, Li and Molder predicted that its simplicity would help people understand the benefits of interventions like social distancing.