Important Context in The Nation This Week

Important Context’s Walker Bragman co-authored an op-ed with Yale epidemiologist Gregg Gonsalves About COVID-19.

This week, The Nation published an editorial by Yale epidemiologist and global health activist Gregg Gonsalves and Important Context’s Walker Bragman.

Titled, “Why Covid Keeps Winning,” the piece comes on the heels of President Joe Biden’s recent COVID-19 infection amid the latest wave of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and seeks to address why the pandemic seems to have such staying power despite America’s political leaders treating the crisis as over.

Gonsalves and Bragman note that the airborne SARS-CoV-2 virus presents a persistent daily risk to Americans—especially the immunocompromised.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which studies have linked to all kinds of troubling health complications—from cardiovascular problems like heart attacks to neurological problems—continues to circulate, mutate, kill, and disable. The death toll has increased twelvefold since May 2020. As of March, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 17 million Americans report living with what has become known as “long Covid,” a condition that can be mild or, as the Department of Health and Human Services noted in a November 2022 report, can disrupt a person’s “entire sense of self.”

The pair take aim at the failure of the United States to make lasting systemic changes to address the ever-present threat—particularly clean indoor air rules for workplaces and schools, paid leave, and universal healthcare.

Our country never made the requisite investments in clean air upgrades for buildings. Despite botching our vaccination campaigns, we have refused to impose universal Covid safety rules for workplaces. Although one of the earliest recommendations from the World Health Organization was to remove financial barriers to care, our country still doesn’t have a universal healthcare system. We have even watched millions of Americans get stripped from the Medicaid rolls, while 10 states still refuse to expand Medicaid eligibility. Meanwhile less than half of states have guaranteed paid medical leave.

Gonsalves and Bragman also take a swipe at media for failing to hold government leaders accountable for their failures to put in place infrastructure to address the threat of airborne pathogens.

“We cannot humanely move on from the pandemic without making basic changes to adapt to life with Covid,” the pair explain. “That we are expected to is an abdication of responsibility by elected officials, who are seemingly willing to write off the health and safety of our society’s most vulnerable as a cost of doing business.”

The SARS-CoV-2 virus has killed 26,000 Americans this year. Cases are surging across the country. Wearing high-quality masks like N95s or better while staying current on vaccination is an effective way to protect yourself and those around you.