By Helen Branswell, Image: NIAID, STAT, March 7, 2022
A new report released Monday charts a path for the transition out of the Covid-19 pandemic, one that outlines both how the country can deal with the challenge of endemic Covid disease and how to prepare for future biosecurity threats.
The report plots a course to what its authors call the “next normal” — living with the SARS-CoV-2 virus as a continuing threat that needs to be managed. Doing so will require improvements on a number of fronts, from better surveillance for Covid and other pathogens to keeping tabs on how taxed hospitals are; and from efforts to address the air quality in buildings to continued investment in antiviral drugs and better vaccines. The authors also call for offering people sick with respiratory symptoms easy access to testing and, if they are positive for Covid or influenza, a quick prescription for the relevant antiviral drug.
The 136-page report was written by nearly two dozen experts, a number of whom have advised the Biden administration on its Covid-19 policies. Thirty other experts contributed to the report, entitled “Getting to and Sustaining the Next Normal: A Roadmap to Living with Covid.”
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