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You recently took to social media to host a Q&A about
the coronavirus. What surprised you most about the
response?
In academic literature, it takes months or even
years to prepare research for publication —
months to get it accepted and months more for it
to be published and seen by a select group of
experts in a narrow field. I decided to do the
Q&A one Saturday morning, set it up within
hours and overnight it had reached well over
50,000 viewers. The questions were exactly what
we're hearing from patients and clinicians. You
can tell people are hungry for believable, unvar-
nished and concrete information about this scary
pandemic. It was gratifying to get such positive
feedback about the session.
Infection prevention professionals are in the spot-
light. What do you hope will come out of this
increased exposure?
The major failures of the U.S. pandemic response, partic-
ularly in comparison to other countries like South Korea,
have shown powerfully that to prevent infection we need
to invest in our public health infrastructure. We need
strong capacity for testing and contact tracing, particu-
larly as we re-open the economy.
Q & A
Making Sense of the COVID-19 Crisis
Timothy P. Lahey, MD, MMSC
Infectious Disease Doctor and Medical Ethicist
