Durland Fish Monday on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.”
Maybe COVID-19 will lead to a cure for a condition that’s plaguing our ability to tackle pandemics — politicians’ allergies to scientific expertise.
That’s the hope, anyway, of a man who has spent decades researching infectious diseases, retired Yale public health Professor and epidemiologist Durland Fish.
Fish said Monday that the lack of sufficient reliance on scientific expertise has hampered government’s ability to respond to threats like the current COVID-19 spread.
“Every Congressman, every senator should have a trained science person on staff,” but most don’t, Fish said during an appearance on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program.
He did not sound optimistic about the coming weeks when the coronavirus’s spread is set to peak in this region. He expects we’ll need to live this way for three months “at a minimum.”
“We’re in the position we’re in now because politicians don’t take the science seriously,” Fish argued.
Long term, Fish said, “We’ll get through this. Most of us will. It should be a lesson: It’s one world. There are a lot of pathogens out there.” And health systems need to be ramped up to identify them and respond to contain their spread.
In the short term, Fish, who’s 75, is self-isolating with his wife at their home in Killingworth. He wrote this article with nine practical tips for limiting exposure to COVID-19, from basics like hand-washing to avoiding handling money (credit cards are better) and using your own pen when signing to charge a purchase at the pharmacy.
He elaborated on that advice and on his view of the COVID-19 crisis, and responded to listeners’ questions, in the WNHH “Dateline” interview, which can be watched in full below.