Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control, joins Dennis Daugaard and Joe Biden in preaching sensible civic responsibility during this pandemic. Beyond wearing masks, washing hands, and keeping our distance, Dr. Redfield says we also need to get our shots—our flu shots. The traditional flu shot won’t fight coronavirus, but it will save lives and keep you and your neighbors from filling up the hospital and making it harder to treat coronavirus:
In the last 10 years, 360,000 people died in this country from flu. Flu is a major cause of death. We have a biological countermeasure and a vaccine, and we do have treatment. And this is the year I’m asking people to really think deep down about getting the flu vaccine.
…we’re going to have COVID in the fall, and we’re going to have flu in the fall. And either one of those by themselves can stress certain hospital systems.
I’ve seen hospital intensive care units stretch by a severe flu season, and clearly, we’ve all seen it recently with COVID. So by getting that flu vaccine, you may be able to then negate the necessity to have to take up a hospital bed. And then that hospital bed can be more available for those that potentially get hospitalized for COVID [CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield, interview with John Whyte, “CDC Director Discusses Next Steps in the War Against COVID,” WebMD: Coronavirus in Context, 2020.08.12].
Dr. Redfield says he’s hoping to get the flu vaccination rate up from 47% to 65% this year. But until we get a coronavirus vaccine, Dr. Redfield says we need far larger percentages of Americans to find their inner JFK and adopt sensible daily coronavirus precautions if we want to avoid a really awful autumn:
If the American public will really take to heart what I’ve asked, wear a mask, the social distance, to use great hand– hand hygiene, and to be smart about crowds, and we all do that. And I keep telling people, I’m not asking some of America to do it. We all got to do it. This is one of those interventions that got to be 95%, 96%, 97%, 98%, 99%, if it’s going to work for us.
…In– in speaking, I’ve said before, when John Kennedy said, “don’t ask what your country can do. Ask for what you can do for your country.” Kind of try to paraphrase that. For your country right now and for the war that we’re in against COVID, I’m asking you to do four simple things. Wear a mask, social distance, wash your hands, and be smart about crowds.
You do those four things, it will bring this outbreak down. But if we don’t do that, as I said last April, this could be the worst fall from a public health perspective, we’ve ever had [Redfield, 2020.08.12].
Watch the full video with Dr. Redfield here:
Wear your mask, wash your hands, keep your distance… and get your flu shot this fall. (Hmmm… maybe we could set up public health clinics alongside early voting stations….)
Just an FYI comment on your last musing here. In Ecuador, they have free public health clinics, for screenings for various diseases and vaccinations in public parks EVERY Sunday afternoon – all year round. National health care is the real answer here.
Like NY City in the early days of the pandemic, Guayaquil, the major port city in that country, was beset by the virus arriving from Europe via travelers there. Since then, measures similar to NY’s were put in place, along with their public health services mobilization. Ecuador is currently seeing reduced cases, with a per capita new infection rate 25% of the US. This while other countries around them (Brazil, Colombia, Peru) are all seeing surges in cases.
They have not entirely banned travel from the US, but if restrictions are still in place when next I go, I would be required to quarantine for 14 days.