We now have all the necessary tools to end the COVID “emergency” phase. Here’s how (and why) we can live with this coronavirus.
Here’s an extended Twitter thread outlining the key points we discussed (easy for sharing). And here’s every show we’ve done with UCSF Professor and infectious disease specialist Dr. Monica Gandhi.
Topics & Timecodes
00:00 Intro, mask mandates, individual control & benefits of one-way masking
05:22 Long COVID, innate vs adaptive immunity, seroprevalence among varying age groups
10:27 Vaccine protection against severe COVID, natural immunity, media catastrophizing, animal reservoirs & endemicity
15:23 Hepatitis outbreak in children, did pandemic sheltering weaken our kids’ immune responses, masking children & the precautionary principle
20:00 Creating an endpoint, the purpose of non-pharmaceutical interventions, hospitalizations with COVID vs. for COVID, death rate as a key metric
23:53 Hybrid immunity, Omicron as the great equalizer, CDC messaging & it’s role in terrifying the vaccinated & convincing the unvaccinated that vaccines don’t work
31:49 Covaxin vs Sinovac, India vs. China, downstream effects of lockdowns, excess deaths
40:32 Age-based risk stratification, immune response in children, what a “mild” case of Omicron looks like, Paxlovid & other therapeutics
46:10 Omicron mutations & why they point to approaching endemicity, public & mental health strategies
49:38 The value of holistic treatment, right brain vs. left brain, reductionism, importance of recognizing the many tools we have to combat COVID
59:32 What’s next for Monica, why docs suck at talking about risk, final thoughts
