![]() The third thing is, we should lead with facts and empathy, rather than our instinct to correct the disinformation and, by doing so, repeating the disinformation.Īnd then the last thing is to have a long engagement with our loved ones who have misinformation or disinformation readily accessible, rather than the expectation that, in one righteous conversation, we're going to convert people to the cause of vaccination and actually sort of remove them all to the - from the all the exposure they have to misinformation and disinformation around COVID and vaccines specifically. So, the second thing is, we should be argumentative. ![]() So, without going into the details of that report, that's a good recipe for that.Īt the individual level, what we can do is, for our friends and family, to make sure that they have access to the right information. ![]() There's a really nice surgeon general's report that actually lays out a road map for responding to misinformation and disinformation at various levels, from the federal to the state to the local government. So, I think the prescription to fight that is, first of all, at the overall government level, there are a lot - a lot of interventions governments can do, including the U.S. We can take other precautions in the interest of public health and personal protection, like testing before gatherings, including family gatherings, like wearing masks, like having good ventilation, et cetera. We can - we're not helpless in the face of this new variant. So I'm just giving you an example, so there - that, from a public health perspective, public health authorities should absolutely be on alert.įrom individual perspectives, we have a lot of self-efficacy. But at the population level, if something is more infectious, it's three times more infectious and half as severe, it will still produce more hospitalizations. It seems there are very early signals that there may be sort of at least the same or less severity per infection. You look at severity at the individual level. Foege chair in Global Health and professor of Global Health, Epidemiology & Pediatrics at Emory University, Schools of Public Health and Medicine. So there are two ways of looking at severity. Omer serves as the inaugural director of Yale Institute of Global Health. What we don't know is how severe it will be. So people have better protection with three doses of vaccine. We know that it evades immunity, especially by two doses of the vaccines we use, but we also know that it responds to three doses. We know that it is a highly infectious strain. Saad Omer, Yale Institute for Global Health: So, here's what we know. Given what we know about omicron, or, maybe more important, what we don't know, how concerned should people be about it, and how - and should we expect omicron to become the dominant strain?ĭr. Saad Omer is an epidemiologist and the director of the Yale Institute for Global Health.ĭr. The CDC estimates the new variant represents about 3 percent of positive U.S. So, plan for it better next time and maybe deploy some unconventional methods to reach families where they are during these massive disruptions in the future.Judy, there are now confirmed cases of omicron in at least 36 states. SAAD OMER: Well, it's, be ready for large-scale disruptions of the immunization effort and make sure that families are eager to get their children vaccinated and keep them up to date. Q: Thinking about the COVID 19 pandemic, are there any lessons we learned from the past two years that can help us control the spread of measles and if there is a large outbreak?ĭR. But if parents did not take their kids to go get the shot, how can they still do it? And is it ever too late for some children?ĭR. Across the border in New York, we have had pretty substantial outbreaks of measles even in recent years.Īnd what some of our research has shown is that a lot of these pockets of vulnerability happen in clusters, and so often even if the overall rate of vaccination is high, in a state, in a county, the local clusters are often at risk of providing that tinder that can catch fire. We can do something about it, and we can catch up children who missed this vaccine and vaccine doses.īut the fact is that we are concerned about it. So it’s not that we are helpless bystanders. SAAD OMER: Unfortunately, there is a chance for that. The WHO and CDC recently lifted the COVID-19 'emergency,' but the pandemic isnt over. Q: We don't often hear about measles outbreaks here in Connecticut, but if the rates of unvaccinated children continue, do you think that's something that we'll see more of?ĭR. Fake At-Home Covid Testing Kits Are Everywhere - Here's How to Avoid Them
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