Last month’s roundtable panel explored various construction industry lessons learned from COVID-19, and while the pandemic is not completely in the rearview mirror, it’s not too early for local, state, and the national governments to take what we’ve learned and be better prepared for the next one. As Dr. Frank Byrne, president emeritus of St. Mary’s Hospital, noted in our early pandemic coverage, “There will be a next one.”
My biggest worry is that we’re too divided to agree about what worked and what did not. For example, it’s pretty clear that the governors who were quicker to reopen their states after the initial flatten-the-curve lockdown period fared better at bringing their economies back to life while still addressing COVID. What governors like Florida’s Ron DeSantis did should be instructive for others, especially with a large population of vulnerable seniors; alas, the pandemic milkers have spent considerable time trying to discredit him.
The economic carnage to some states was unavoidable. Hawaii’s economy, which is more dependent on tourism than other states, shrunk the most at 9.9%. On the whole, I would have much rather lived in Florida than in California or New York, which closed down again only to continue experiencing unacceptably high COVID spikes.
While we’re still trying to figure out how long vaccine protection lasts, here are a few more lessons. We should never again fail to replenish supplies of personal protective equipment, a process that should be well underway. In addition, we should never again put one illness, especially one with a low mortality rate outside of older adults with comorbidities, above all others.
As for federal guidelines, it’s hard to know what to believe anymore. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has relaxed its guidance on masks for people who are vaccinated, and a new study by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology claims there isn’t much of a benefit to the six-foot rule, especially when people are wearing masks. MIT researchers found that the air a person breathes while wearing a mask tends to rise and come down elsewhere in the room. The important variable is the amount of time spent indoors with an infected person — the less, the better.
Another lesson is the enduring value of public-private partnerships to stretch our resources. The local business community responded well when supplies were limited, and it deserved better treatment. Recurring business restrictions made the economic damage worse than it had to be.
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