Lessons from Zika in the Era of COVID-19

By CHADI NABHAN, MD, MBA, FACP

If you are a soccer fan, watching the FIFA World Cup is a
ritual that you don’t ever violate. Brazilians, arguably more than any other
fans in the world, live and breathe soccer—and they are always expected to be a
legitimate contender to win it all. Their expectations are magnified when they are
the host country, which was the case in 2014. Not only did the Germans destroy
Brazilian World Cup dreams, but less than a year after a humiliating loss
on their turf, Brazilians began dealing with another devastating blow: a viral
epidemic. Zika left the country scrambling to understand how to manage the
devastation caused by the virus and grappling with conspiracies theories of
whether the virus was linked to the tourism brought by hosting the FIFA World
Cup.

How did I become so interested in what happened in Brazil five
years ago? Well, social distancing and being mostly at home in the era of
COVID-19 seems to energize reflection. Watching politicians on TV networks blaming
each other and struggling to appear more knowledgeable than scientists makes me
marvel at the hubris. My mind took me back to several prior epidemics that we
encountered from Swine Flu to Ebola, and I couldn’t help but think about the lessons
lost. What did we miss in these previous crises to land us in this current
state where Zoom is your best friend and you are more interested in commenting
on tweets than doing a peer-review? One cannot help but wonder what is so
d...

Source: The Health Care Blog - April 23, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: COVID-19 Health Policy Chadi Nabhan epidemic Pandemic Zika Source Type: blogs