Yearning for robust response
Hui C. Tsou, an attending pathologist working at New York Harbor Healthcare system, looked at her densely filled work schedule of 2020 which she described as one of the busiest years of her career.
“We are always in a state of emergency,” Tsou told the Global Times.
During the COVID- 19 outbreak, Tsou was involved in the work of doctor scheduling and bed coordination at the department of veterans’ affairs. “To my great regret, the technicians in our hospital’s morgue have been working overtime, and there are still a large number of people who died this year,” Tsou said.
Tsou believes the biggest sticking point is that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC) has been slow in its response and still appears to be behind in its preparations for this bruising pandemic.
According to Tsou, in the early days of the outbreak, under the vague guidelines of the CDC, many doctors in New York got infected by coming in contact with COVID- 19 patients without wearing masks, in order to keep sufficient protective materials and avoid causing more panic.
“Sadly, there is still a heated debate in the US about whether or not to wear masks, which has become common sense and the normal behavior in other countries,” Tsou said, noting that the US government’s epidemic prevention efforts didn’t spend any time on the right messaging, even directly exposing illprepared hospitals and doctors to the frontlines.
On December
26, the US reached a grim milestone: 1 in
1,000 Americans had died from COVID- 19 since the country’s first reported infection in late January, CNN reported.
Tsou wishes that in the new year, the incoming Biden administration will actually fulfill their campaign commitments to give an “urgent, robust and professional response” to correct the course of the outbreak.
At the same time, Tsou believes that having general population vaccinated as soon as possible with a safe and effective vaccine is of great importance.
“Given the US is not equipped to deal with an enormous surge in serious cases, a vaccine may be the most effective weapon to end this war,” she added.