Questions the U.S. Government Should Answer to Learn From Its Botched COVID Response

To say that the U.S. government's response to the pandemic failed on multiple levels is an understatement. Government policy obstructed an intelligible, initial pandemic response and it only went downhill from there. Seven states notwithstanding, governors implemented harmful lockdowns. States implemented mask mandates that did very little to nothing to slow transmission, as well as travel bans and a federal mask mandate on airplanes and public transit. School closures did a number on the mental health and educational attainment of children.  

While COVID-19 brought disease and COVID-related death, the government chose fear and panic over following the science. As a result, the collateral damage left by the government's unsound public health practices will leave its mark on the American people for years to come. This is where the Norfolk Group comes in. 

The Norfolk Group is a cohort of eight infectious disease experts, two of whom were co-authors of the Great Barrington Declaration. The Great Barrington Declaration got flak from such organizations as the World Health Organization and the British Academy of Medical Sciences. However, as I have commented on since the beginning of the pandemic, more and more evidence is showing that the Great Barrington Declaration's approach of avoiding strict public health measures was largely correct. 

The Norfolk Group is pushing for a bipartisan Congressional hearing to address and investigate the government's public health interventions during the pandemic. Last week, the Norfolk Group released a white paper with questions they would ask in the event of such a hearing. There were a number of great questions that this group of infectious disease experts asked. You can read the full report here, but here were a few of my favorite questions:

1. Why was there an almost exclusive focus on COVID-19 to the detriment of recognizing and mitigating collateral damage on other aspects of public health, including but not limited to cancer screening and treatment, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, childhood vaccinations, and mental health? 
2. Protective services such as rehabilitation and physical therapy were severely restricted or discontinued, as were visits from family and friends, even post vaccination. Such activities would have helped older people maintain physical and mental health and reduced dementia due to isolation. Were the effects of severe isolation and lack of services take into consideration in this population, particularly post-vaccination? 
3. Why did the CDC downplay infection-acquired immunity, despite robust evidence for it?
4. Why did hospital and nursing homes not pursue such focused protection of the most vulnerable? Why did they not try to hire staff with infection-acquired immunity? Why was this not recommended by the CDC?
5. After firing many unvaccinated nurses and physicians, some hospitals experienced severe staff shortages in late 2021 and into 2022, many of which persist today. How did this affect the quality of healthcare? How many patients did not receive healthcare because of this? What did governors and state health departments do to avoid these self-imposed problems? 
6. On August 7, 2020, the CDC published an MMWR study based on COVID-Net data from March 1, 2020 through July 25, 2020, which clearly established the low risk to American children. In this analysis, children comprised less than 0.01% of hospitalizations and 0.0005% of associated COVID-19 mortality. Why did the CDC not use these data to reassure concerned parents that in-person schools were safe for children? 
7. How many people had cancer diagnosis delayed during the pandemic? What did the CDC and state health departments do to avoid this problem? What have they done to ensure catch-ups with cancer screenings? What will be the toll on future cancer mortality due to delated cancer diagnoses? 
8. Why were many gyms closed by local and state governments? Why were sports programs for children terminated? 
9. Did lockdown-induced rise in unemployment increase mortality in 2020 and 2021? Does this explain some of the excess mortality seen among Americans below the age of 65? 
10. Women disproportionately provided the necessary childcare at home. How has this affected the short- and long-term economic situation for working mothers and their families? How has it affected the mental and social health of women? How has this affected women's career advancement and salary trajectories? 
11. To accurately estimate an infection fatality rate (IFR), it is necessary to have accurate cause-of-death data but the CDC reports included deaths with an incidental COVID-19 infection. Why did the CDC consistently provide inaccurate IFR estimates? 
12. Why was public perception of hospitalization and mortality risk due to COIVD-19 so different from the actual risk? What actions, if any, did CDC take to help the public better and more accurately understand COVID-19 risk? 
13. CDC information guidance provided to healthcare workers continued to contradict recommendations for the general public, for example stating that "face masks protect the wearer from splashes and sprays," while "respirators, which filter inspired air, offer respiratory protection." Why did the CDC recommend surgical and cloth face masks for the general public while at the same time informing healthcare workers that facemarks do little to filter inspired air or offer protection from respiratory viral infection? 
14. Why did Drs. Fauci and Walensky recommend double masking based only on simulated rather than real-world data?
15. Why were masks mandated on public transportation such as buses, trains, and airplanes without any scientific studies showing their efficacy in such settings? 
16. Before the pandemic, there was not much evidence that cloth masks were effective against respiratory viruses...Despite [the lack of] such evidence, why were cloth masks encouraged rather than discouraged as protection against COVID-19? 
17. Why did the US decline to use the validated European [COVID] test when it became available or to use the WHO test?  How many lives of nursing home residents and other elderly high risk could have been saved by more rapid deployment/use/creation of tests during the 6 weeks that the US lagged the rest of the developed world? 
18. Why did the CDC require testing for international air travel, but not for domestic? 
19. In 2015, the CDC evaluated effectiveness of border entry screening during the SARS1 and H1N1 influenza outbreaks, and concluded that both were heavily resource-intensive, unlikely to be successful in preventing entry of disease, and should not be used. Why did the CDC not follow its 2015 conclusions? 
20. Why did many organizations continue with mandates through the summer and fall of 2021, despite data demonstrating both waning efficacy of symptomatic inflection and reduce long-term ability to curb viral spread?