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'It's like politicizing toilet paper.' A member of Biden's COVID-19 panel surveys the task ahead [View all]
Here's an interview with Dr. Céline Gounder, a physician and epidemiologist at NYU, who is on President Elect Biden's taks force. It's an item in the current issue of Science, a publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science:
‘It’s like politicizing toilet paper.’ A member of Biden’s COVID-19 panel surveys the task ahead (Warren Caldwell, Science, November 13, 2020). It is most likely open sourced.
Some excerpts:
Q: Do you have particular skills that made you a candidate for the task force?
A: I have a lot of experience in terms of public health and clinical medicine when it comes to epidemics.
I led the Bureau of Tuberculosis (TB) Control in New York City, another respiratory infection. Contact tracing historically has been based out of TB. I worked in sub-Saharan Africa from the late ’90s, up until 2012, on tuberculosis and HIV, public health programs, and research. Then I was also an Ebola aid worker in Guinea.
Q: You also have quite a presence in the communication world. You have a podcast. You’re working on a movie. You’ve written articles for a variety of publications. Do you think that plays a part in it?
A: I’m sure. A big part of public health is communication. How do you convince people to wear a mask? How do you message around social distancing?...
...Q: So how do you get people to wear masks?
A: It’s a challenging one, because the issue has been so politicized. But in my mind, it’s like politicizing toilet paper. It’s a basic hygienic measure. It’s not about your political party. And we need to somehow break through that.
I will say people are doing better. If you look at the surveys, people are not perfect about wearing masks, but they are wearing them more. Part of this is also just letting people know that this is becoming the social norm. People are more likely to do something if they feel like everybody else is doing it...
...Q: Has the Trump administration’s unwillingness to acknowledge that Biden is the president-elect affected the task force’s ability to get its work done?
A: It’s certainly not an ideal situation. But you have many people, including Biden himself, who have very long careers working in government. So while you may not have cooperation occurring in any official transition capacity, it’s not like they’re in the cold.
There’s also nothing to prevent the transition team from interfacing with governors and state and local health officials. Finally, much of health care is delivered in this country by the private sector. In particular with respect to tests and vaccines, and monoclonal antibodies, that’s really about collaborating with the private sector to figure out how to scale up and distribute...
A: I have a lot of experience in terms of public health and clinical medicine when it comes to epidemics.
I led the Bureau of Tuberculosis (TB) Control in New York City, another respiratory infection. Contact tracing historically has been based out of TB. I worked in sub-Saharan Africa from the late ’90s, up until 2012, on tuberculosis and HIV, public health programs, and research. Then I was also an Ebola aid worker in Guinea.
Q: You also have quite a presence in the communication world. You have a podcast. You’re working on a movie. You’ve written articles for a variety of publications. Do you think that plays a part in it?
A: I’m sure. A big part of public health is communication. How do you convince people to wear a mask? How do you message around social distancing?...
...Q: So how do you get people to wear masks?
A: It’s a challenging one, because the issue has been so politicized. But in my mind, it’s like politicizing toilet paper. It’s a basic hygienic measure. It’s not about your political party. And we need to somehow break through that.
I will say people are doing better. If you look at the surveys, people are not perfect about wearing masks, but they are wearing them more. Part of this is also just letting people know that this is becoming the social norm. People are more likely to do something if they feel like everybody else is doing it...
...Q: Has the Trump administration’s unwillingness to acknowledge that Biden is the president-elect affected the task force’s ability to get its work done?
A: It’s certainly not an ideal situation. But you have many people, including Biden himself, who have very long careers working in government. So while you may not have cooperation occurring in any official transition capacity, it’s not like they’re in the cold.
There’s also nothing to prevent the transition team from interfacing with governors and state and local health officials. Finally, much of health care is delivered in this country by the private sector. In particular with respect to tests and vaccines, and monoclonal antibodies, that’s really about collaborating with the private sector to figure out how to scale up and distribute...
The full interview is worth a read.
Dr. Gounder:
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