UNIVERSAL PRECAUTIONS

The failure of the CDC here in the USA to devise an affordable preliminary disaster plan for any pandemic will cost future Americans trillions of dollars. The agency's leadership focused on its relationship with the pharmaceutical and biotech industries over a relationship with the American public. But the CDC has never much cared for that latter relationship in this country of sickness-remedy-for-profit.

One great lesson of the HIV epidemic was taken to heart by all medical and dental professionals. It enabled medical personnel to be unprejudiced in their care of the public, which included HIV-infected individuals who were asymptomatic for years. Universal precautions have been in place since the 1980s in most places. See this disturbing advisory from OSHA, which implies a failure of some health care facilities to practice these precautions.

Universal precautions could have become standard public policy during the recent pandemic. In fact, with the exception of restaurants, where customers would have to be without masks in congregated space, public application of universal precautions (gloves and masks in public areas in proximity to others) could have prevented the economic and social disaster we now face as a nation. One can only assume the Federal Government and the health-pharma industry failed to have the necessary stored supply of masks and gloves to distribute to the public. 

President Trump's foolhardy assertion early in the epidemic that he would not be wearing a mask is matched by Speaker of the House Pelosi's encouragement of mass Lunar New Year celebrations in the streets of San Francisco's Chinatown in late January. The CDC poo-pooed the use of masks and gloves early in the epidemic while touting fast-track tests and cures. Not fast-track enough. 

Paper gowns and protective eyewear could also have been distributed to the homes of afflicted patients who could have been isolated within homes immediately to protect their families/caregivers. Think of how this would have slowed the spread of the infection. But this didn't happen.

This is an age of door-to-door delivery. Would it have cost trillions of dollars to drop off a box of masks and a box of gloves to mailing addresses (commercial and residential) across the USA? Absolutely not. It may have cost billions, but the economy would have continued to work and most people would not be out of jobs. 

Educating the public to use universal precautions inside and outside their homes and workplaces would have had less drastic effects than imposing social distancing and curfews. Freedom of choice could be maintained. Those who decide not to wear protective gear would take the individual risk of inoculation by the virus. I would wager confidently that very few would make that choice. 

The CDC and its pharma allies could have worked on tests and cures with universal precautions in place. There would inevitably be cases from which to extract virus samples and observe the symptomology. However, I am confident that there would have been a fraction of the current death toll. The burden and cost on the medical infrastructure would most likely have been much lighter. 

In my opinion, as someone who has worked within an epidemic and has been infected during a few, the Federal Government would do well to equip itself with the ability to implement mass precautions by delivering supplies door-to-door in the future.  It would also do well to require all health care providers, pharmacies and retail establishments to maintain a strategic supply of precaution equipment. That includes isopropyl alcohol and other solutions for sanitizing. 

It is time for politicians to step back from public health emergencies. That includes politicians who work for the NIH and CDC. Our tremendous medical centers and medical schools have a surplus of brain power to guide the country through an epidemic. Standing regional epidemic think tanks should be routine. And these should be the voices of rational response to any future epidemic, not a coterie of political medical bureaucrats.