Dr. Ali Khan, what is the U.S. doing wrong?
So, it starts — goes right back.
So, you know, in the early days, I said it
was lack of imagination.
So, you know, the U.S. had sort of been sucker-punched
by this outbreak.
But at this point, it’s very clear: We don’t
have a national strategy based on the four
principles that everybody else has used to
get rid of this outbreak.
Simple four principles, right?
So, the first principle to contain this outbreak
is leadership.
So that’s integrated, whole-of-government
leadership from the local, state to national
level.
We still don’t have that.
We can’t agree on so many things that are
important.
The second part is, get down community transmission.
And this is the role of government, to make
sure we’re testing and tracing.
Nobody is talking about that anymore — isolating
cases quickly, finding those contacts — nor
does anybody talk about the metrics around
that.
The third thing is community engagement.
And that’s our role, right?
Wear a mask.
Please, wear a mask.
Wash your hands.
Social distance.
And the fourth thing is, do what you can to
make sure that people who are hospitalized
are more likely to survive.
And the one drug we know that does that right
now is dexamethasone.
So, those are four simple principles, a national
strategy, four principles.
We can get our disease contained like so many
other countries all over the world.
Dr. Khan, you’re the former head of the
CDC’s Office of Public Health Preparedness
and Response, which included overseeing the
Strategic National Stockpile on emergency
medical supplies.
Can you account for, many months into this
pandemic, the United States continuing to
have a shortage of tests and masks?
I have no explanation for that.
I have said I could have grown polypropylene
trees by this time for nasal swabs, given
the ingenuity of Americans and our biomedical
complex to create these material, personal
protective equipment, to contain tests — make
tests.
So I really have no explanation for that.
I can say, though, that we have enough testing
in the United States currently, if we used
it correctly and we got a timely result back
and didn’t have to wait a week for the result.
How optimistic are you about the development
of a vaccine?
I am optimistic; however, the road to an uncertain
vaccine is paved in death.
Right?
So, we talk about 60,000 cases a day.
So that’s basically we’re minting 600
to a thousand new death certificates every
day.
Right?
We can’t wait for a vaccine.
Right?
And other countries have gotten their diseases
contained and eliminated without a vaccine.
So, yes, I would love a vaccine.
There’s lots of data that makes it problematic.
Immunity may be short-lived.
We’ve never had vaccines based on these
technologies.
So, as anybody else, I’m optimistic.
I hope there’s a vaccine.
We don’t need a vaccine today so that we
don’t kill another 600 to a thousand people
tomorrow.
We have the tools.
Can you talk, Dr. Ali Khan, about what it
would mean if the president of the United
States simply put on a mask on a regular basis?
Trump seeing a mask as weakness — only this
past weekend, you saw him for a minute wearing
a mask, and he said, well, he was in a hospital?
The significance of what this would mean at
the federal level?
Then you see it go down to the state level,
his biggest allies, DeSantis, the governor
Florida, for the first time donning a mask.
In Arizona — we’re going to go to and
speak with the mayor of Tucson today — Governor
Ducey, a recent death in Arizona of a Mexican
American man.
His daughter said, “I say that the governor
and the president have blood on their hands.”
Do you feel the same way, Dr. Khan?
I believe all of government has blood on their
hands — 136,000 deaths, preventable deaths,
a tragedy.
There’s a lot of blood to go around here,
Amy, let’s be very honest, you know, if
you look at the rest of the world, that’s
contained their disease, and some even eliminated.
So there’s a lot of blood to go around.
But what you saw in countries that were successful
was that each and every politician, regardless
of their party, followed the science.
So, everybody said, “Wear masks.”
No controversy.
Everybody wore a mask.
They got their disease under control.
And we need to see that again right now at
every political level — local, state, national.
Wear a mask.
That’s one of the four strategies that will
get us out of this mess.
