If the United States were my patient: Science cannot rescue us from ourselves

(CNN)It has been almost one year since a new coronavirus named SARS-CoV-2 made its presence known to us. What started off as a small cluster of unusual pneumonia cases that cropped up in Wuhan, China, soon rippled out from there, causing infections around the globe. By March, Covid-19 had been declared a pandemic and essentially shut down many sectors of society in most countries. During that time, I’ve written several essays, including two on how I would treat the United States if it were my patient. Since finishing medical school more than 25 years ago, it is often how I look at the world. And now, while this country is paradoxically at the brink of both the very best- and the very worst-case scenarios, it may be time to check in again. I say the very best-case scenario because we are so close to doing what, pre-pandemic, would have seemed impossible: creating, testing, authorizing, manufacturing and distributing not just one but several vaccines in an amazingly compressed timeline — certainly one of our greatest recent medical achievements. Also, we have learned so much about the virus, in real-time, and have new — and some old — medicines to treat it…. Read full this story

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