Lessons From Ebola For Today's Covid-19
So I’m taking this Harvard course “ Lessons from Ebola:Preventing the Next Pandemic ” which is being offered free online. Was hoping to get insights from that outbreak in 2015. I’m midway through the course but already so many themes resonate. It was called a “caregiver’s disease” because many fatalities were health care workers. Initial response was focused on controlling the movement of people instead of clinical care. Beyond the need for medicines was the absence of basic health structures. The need to move away from a “disease only” paradigm to a holistic view. "A good everyday health care system is the best emergency response system." The cost of inaction (in lives and to the economy) is much higher than the cost of action (putting the infrastructure and health care capacity in place before you need it). Stories of ethical decisions, of health workers deciding between their own safety and caring for their patients in the absence of PPEs; deciding...