Consider Ourselves Warned
Remember the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic? I understand if you’d rather forget. It is natural for the body to suppress trauma. We’d all like to forget. But I remember, and it was scary. We were locked in our homes, afraid to touch anything. New York City felt hollowed out and eerily quiet, except for the sound of ambulance sirens. If we did go outside, we stood on dots to avoid coming too close to anyone. There was no vaccine and virtually no treatment. More than 1.2 million Americans have died from COVID-19 to date, including more than 85,000 in New York State.
The worst of COVID is behind us. I’ve written before about the dangers of forgetting the lessons it taught us. Yet the risks of old diseases reemerging are growing — as are the threats of new pathogens that could be just as dangerous. Consider this:
Polio is considered eradicated in the U.S. (and in most of the world), thanks to safe and effective vaccines. But there was a time when polio was one of the most feared diseases, paralyzing 20,000 Americans each year and killing some. Vaccines saved us, though Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK) who is poised to become secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) called that notion a “mythology.”
Polio made a shocking reappearance in Rockland County, NY in 2022. The county’s polio vaccination rate is just 60%, compared to a national average of 93%. The polio virus was detected in the wastewater of multiple counties, leading New York to declare a public health emergency. Fortunately, quick interventions stopped the outbreak.
Then there’s measles, which was officially eliminated in the U.S. in 2000. Yet, at least twelve cases of measles, including school-aged children, were just reported in Texas. Measles is a highly contagious airborne disease. This disease can cause serious health consequences and even death, especially for young and unvaccinated children. About 1 in 5 unvaccinated people in the U.S. who get measles will be hospitalized. None of the people in Texas who contracted measles were vaccinated and measles vaccination rates in Texas are declining.
Looming is a new danger: avian flu (aka bird flu). In January 2022, bird flu was detected in the U.S. among wild aquatic birds. Since then, it has affected more than 153 million birds, wiping out flocks (and sending egg prices to record levels in the grocery store). Long Island’s last remaining duck farm in New York was ordered to kill its entire flock of 100,000 ducks and may go out of business. Just last week, an outbreak of bird flu was confirmed in Ulster County, NY.
For at least a year, bird flu has infected at least 900 dairy herds. It has infected at least 67 Americans and killed one. There is cause for alarm but not panic. According to some excellent reporting by the New York Times about bird flu:
“A human pandemic is not inevitable, even now…But a series of developments over the past few weeks indicates that the possibility is no longer remote….Toothless guidelines, inadequate testing and long delays in releasing data — echoes of the missteps during the COVID-19 pandemic — have squandered opportunities for containing the outbreak.”
Recent actions by the federal administration are adding to the danger. President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO) and immediately stop working with it undermines global disease surveillance. It exposes us to increased health risks and weakens national security. WHO could use some reforms and has made mistakes, but withdrawal is not the answer. Here at home, a near-total communications blackout of public health information also leaves us less safe. The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) is perhaps the most important early warning system we have to track and publicize emerging health risks; even a pause in its publication endangers our health. Whether or not RFK Jr. is ultimately confirmed, some damage is already done by spreading doubts and misinformation about vaccines.
Old and new threats to our health are real. A former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote: “I want to remind America: The question is not if there will be another public health threat, but when.” We should consider ourselves warned.
