Revisiting COVID-19 policies: 10 evidence-based recommendations for where to go from here.
Daniel T HalperinNorman HearstStephen HodginsRobert C BaileyJeffrey D KlausnerHelen JacksonRichard G WamaiJoseph A LadapoMead OverStefan David BaralKevin Escandón-VargasMonica GandhiPublished in: BMC public health (2021)
While remarkably effective vaccines have engendered great hope, some widely held assumptions underlying current policy approaches call for an evidence-based reassessment. COVID-19 will require ongoing mitigation for the foreseeable future as it transforms from a pandemic into an endemic infection, but maintaining a constant state of emergency is not viable. A more realistic public health approach is to adjust current mitigation goals to be more data-driven and to minimize unintended harms associated with unfocused or ineffective control efforts. Based on the latest evidence, we therefore present recommendations for refining 10 key policy areas, and for applying lessons learned from COVID-19 to prevent and prepare for future pandemics.