Author: Neil Schoenherr

Italy’s overwhelmed healthcare system applied a triage strategy that prioritized its young persons. We submit that now is the time to prioritize our older adults before it is too late. Let’s help our healthcare professionals by flattening the curve.

The coronavirus relief act addresses some critical needs but remains more focused on “rescue” than economic “stimulus.” Additional federal intervention may very well be necessary, and soon.

There is no doubt that significant economic destruction lies ahead. But we can use this time of upheaval to rethink the importance of a social safety net that provides protection to all Americans, including the most vulnerable.

As the coronavirus continues to spread across the nation, a number of false conclusions and rumors have spread with it. Three epidemiologists in public health at Washington University in St. Louis separate the truth from myth.

Many countries reacted slowly and inadequately to the spread of COVID-19. Some critics have said this is due to initial reports of the disease, which indicated that it mainly affected older populations. “Older adults are not some kind of expendable commodity,” said Nancy Morrow-Howell, the Betty Bofinger Brown Distinguished Professor of Social Policy at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis and an international leader in gerontology.

In one of the United States’ national myths, George Washington accepts responsibility for having chopped down a cherry tree — a story that’s held up as a sign of how deeply honorable our founding president was. Our research finds that leaders who claim the blame for their governments’ performance when crises strike also can reap rewards.

It is nice to think about a cure, especially when things seem to get worse every day. But we implore you to follow medical professionals’ advice and not get or take an experimental medication recommended without evidence of its success. If you have no psychiatric history, we’d rather you stay that way.

As the coronavirus spreads across the United States, larger cities, like New York and Seattle, are dealing with increasing numbers of infections and deaths daily. However, less populated rural areas are not immune from the disease, say two public health experts at Washington University in St. Louis, and controlling it in rural America presents a unique set of challenges.

In times of crisis, communities pull together. As history has shown, some do this better than others. In St. Louis, if our past is any indication, we have what it takes to dig in and do what is needed to pull through.

Tim McBride, the Bernard Becker Professor at Washington University in St. Louis’ Brown School and a leading health economist, said that the coronavirus outbreak will exacerbate problems in Missouri’s public health systems, which were already underfunded relative to most of the rest of the country, as well as issues facing low-income residents with challenges accessing medical care.