As President Biden formally declares an end to the COVID pandemic, former Minnesota Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm says it's not entirely clear if we're totally prepared to face another major health event like it:
“We have so many lessons that we should take away from these last three years,” Malcolm told WCCO’s Adam and Jordana. “And I worry, a little bit, and I understand. Everybody wants to move on. But we do that at our peril.
I think we really need to figure out, what do we take away from this?”
Malcolm said there were some good things that came out of the pandemic, such as a deepening of some key state and local partnerships. But she says there was disproportionate risk in who was exposed to COVID based on the kind of work people did, whether they were on the front lines, and whether or not they were able to work from home.
“It depends on whether we really do or don’t, kind of take stock of the lessons that we’ve learned,” Malcolm explained. “We certainly could be better prepared with everything that we learned, some of the new capabilities that we built. But that’s not automatic. There’s a real chance we could be less well prepared.”
The U.S. national emergency to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic ended Monday as President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan congressional resolution to bring it to a close after three years — weeks before it was set to expire alongside a separate public health emergency.
More than 1.13 million people in the U.S. have died from COVID-19 over the last three years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including 1,773 people in the week ending April 5.
Malcolm and Dr. MayKao Y. Hong from the University of St Thomas joined WCCO’s Adam and Jordana show to talk about a new way to view healthcare. You can listen to their entire interview below.
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