Ideas For A COVID Commission

Environmental & Science Education, STEM, Health, Medicine, Science & Society

Ed Hessler

The Star Tribune (2/26/2024) had an opinion column titled "U. S. needs a 9/11 commission for COVID" written by F. D. Flam, a Bloomberg Opinion columnist who covers science. It is guarded by a subscription paywall, However, it may be read here with a slightly different title.

A few tidbits follow.

--First, it was three years ago, March 2020 when we "were told to stay (at home) indefinitely as COVID cases." There was little warning or public debate. This early response was incredibly destructive and ineffective."

--Flam cites two analyses since then on what happened but believes "an official bipartisan treatment would have a big impact on our polarized nation, giving Dr. Michael Osterholm credit. She writes that he was "first to get me thinking about a 9/11 Commission for COVID."

Flam suggests that such a report should include "why our elected leaders and expert agencies didn't warn he pubic sooner," why "fair warning could have helped people take voluntary disease avoidance and to prepare for disruptions, what might have been done at various levels - government, employers, communities - might have done "to prevent deaths among essential workers," puncture the thin excuse that U.S. leaders made bad decisions because of a lack of data on a novel virus," blunt versus targeted strategies, the impact of "early fumbles," the possible effects of many assumptions that were made at the time.

 

Here are a couple I hope will be included. Because policy relevant science seems to me to have a slightly different meaning than science reported in journals, I like to see a discussion on what sufficient science evidence to make policies decisions is. And in the absent of that evidence and in the midst of a major threat to human health what course or courses of action should be under conditions of uncertainty. Policy and the science to make the best decision are not always synchronous, i.e., what should be done when it is clear that more scientific (and possibly clinical 

) research is needed

--Flam quotes Osterholm from a commentary warning about lockdown, written for the Washington Post, March 21, 2020. She reports that he still stands by those remarks.

--In closing, Flam reminds us that "Lots of countries made mistakes.... The only way to learn from them is to five them a hard, nonpartisan look." In other words a forensic analysis on the science and the various public policies, the events that followed, and what preparations for such an event require.

I like this idea and glad that she and Dr. Osterholm spoke to him, sparking the idea for this thoughtful column.