Bear with me: maybe COVID hospitalizations should be a bigger story than the hyped-up coverage of flu hospitalizations. Especially when COVID admissions are outpacing flu admissions 1.5 to 1, and this COVID surge is just getting started

source: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/index.htm

The most fucked up policy decision global leaders made vis à vis COVID was telling the public that it was safe to send kids to school and to return to work.

We now have an entire generation of children and their parents who will suffer the effects of long COVID－ either directly or indirectly－ long after today's world leaders are long gone. smdh.

For folks that don't know: I led a public service project that made it possible for anyone in the U.S. to search for COVID-19 testing sites, and actually get accurate results back. I co-led a team of hundreds of volunteers from across the country to source data that shaped the pandemic response for 2 U.S. Presidential Administrations as well as state and local public health agencies responsible for 1 in 5 persons in the U.S.

I'm not just talking out of my ass.

Coders Against COVID. It me ⤵️

https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDHSFEMA/bulletins/2883543

The data in this letter from Senators Warren (D-MA) and Smith (D-Minn) to retail COVID-19 testing providers? It me ⤵️

https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-smith-question-top-retail-testing-providers-companies-on-lack-of-pediatric-testing-at-their-covid-19-testing-sites

The data in this OpEd from Dr. Peter Hotez and U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia? It me. ⤵️

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/Peter-Hotez-and-Sylvia-Garcia-We-must-learn-from-16194462.php

There are dozens of other examples. The upshot is simply: I was there. I did what I could to enable better decisions and to empower decisionmakers. Many others helped, but global leaders decided that it was time to move on, and we're all paying the price for their short-sightedness.

/end COVID rant