NYC Takes Down Covid-19 Alert System With BA.5 Omicron Spreading, Transmission High

Healthcare NYC Takes Down Covid-19 Alert System With BA. 5 Omicron Spreading, Transmission High Bruce Y. Lee Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

I am a writer, journalist, professor, systems modeler, computational and digital health expert, avocado-eater, and entrepreneur, not always in that order. New! Follow this author to improve your content experience. Got it! Jul 8, 2022, 06:20pm EDT | Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Covid-19 transmission levels have been high in June and July, with the spread of BA.

5 Omicron . . .

[+] subvariant potentially fueling another Covid-19 surge. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images) Getty Images If you’ve been looking for the New York City (NYC) Covid Alert system since the end of last week, you wouldn’t have found one. In fact, checking the NYC Health website where the alert system used to be posted would have revealed the following message: “We are re-evaluating the city’s COVID Alert system.

Check back here for updates in the coming weeks. ” Meanwhile, as data that’s still on the NYC Health website demonstrates , the Big Apple has been experiencing what the website calls, “high transmission levels of Covid-19 throughout the city. ” This is certainly a situation where being high is not good.

As I covered on Sunday for Forbes , there are concerns that NYC may be having yet another Covid-19 surge, this time fueled by the spread of the BA. 5 Omicron subvariant of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The BA.

5 appears to be more transmissible than pervious versions and different enough in its protein configuration that it may be able to better evade any immune protection that you may have from vaccination or previous infection. Naturally, the best time to stop or slow a surge would be before the surge has occurred. The second best time would be at the very beginning of the surge.

The 21st or so best time would be several weeks into the surge. Once the horse has left the barn, the cat has left the bag, the lemur has left the office, and the Timberlake has left the *NSYNC, it’s a lot more difficult to turn things around. On its website the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) is urging people to take the following precautions: “Wear a high-quality mask in all public indoor settings and around crowds outside.

Stay up-to-date on vaccinations. Test before and after travel or gatherings, or if you were recently exposed to someone who has COVID-19. Stay home if sick.

Wash your hands. ” However, the big question is whether people in NYC will take any of these recommendations seriously, especially when they aren’t currently required to do so. If this Covid-19 pandemic has proven one thing, it’s that many people do not do what they are recommended or asked to do.

Many folks will wait for it, wait for it, wait for it to be required. That’s why there are laws and requirements rather than recommendations to follow traffic regulations, to wear clothes in public, to use bathrooms instead of peeing or pooping just anywhere, and to pay for things in stores. MORE FOR YOU CDC: Salmonella Outbreak Has Left 279 Ill, 26 Hospitalized In 29 States Canadians End Up In ICU After Attending ‘Covid Party’ White House Mandates Pfizer Vaccines for Millions of Citizens .

. . Before the FDA Clinical or Safety Reviews Have Been Made Public And as evidenced by the number of fake vaccination cards that have emerged since late 2020 and the number of noses that you saw when face mask requirements were in place, it may not even be enough to tell everyone that they have to do something.

There also has to be some way of monitoring compliance with requirements. This is one of the reasons why far too many people still pee in swimming pools, treating them like gigantic toilet bowls, as I’ve covered for Forbes . So one of the purposes of an alert system is to let everyone know under what circumstances certain requirements may need to be enforced and how compliance with such requirements might be monitored.

Based on the NYC Health website message, it’s unclear when a new NYC alert system will emerge or what it will look like. Without an alert system, it can be much more difficult to respond rapidly and effectively to changes in the Covid-19 situation. Every type of emergency response needs some type of alert system in order connect situation with action.

For example, you can’t just tell someone on the beach to run for cover without first saying, “hey, it looks like your thong is about to snap. ” This will help the person realize that you are trying to help rather than simply making fun of his or her outfit. A consistent and clear alert system, which New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern reviewed here, .

. . [+] served as the basis of New Zealand’s response to Covid-19.

(Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images) Getty Images Also, having an alert system helps people better anticipate what to do. Imagine what would happen if your significant other were to give you no warning about how he or she would react to different situations and instead simply break up with you unexpectedly. OK, maybe that’s already happened to you.

Regardless, it’s not a good situation to have. You’d probably prefer some kind of advances warning such as your significant other telling you in advance, “Your growing Justin Bieber statue collection is getting a bit out of hand. Must you put them in every room in the house? Ten more statues and I am leaving you.

” The website does not clarify specifically why such a reevaluation is occurring. With Covid-19 transmission being high, Mandate Masks in NY , a NYC advocacy effort calling for, guess what, mask mandates, tweet-thread-wondered why face mask wearing requirements for indoor public locations haven’t been reinstituted: The tweet-thread pointed out that the original NYC Covid Alert system unveiled in March had indicated that “high” risk levels would likely trigger face mask wearing requirements: Completely changing alert systems in the middle of a pandemic has its risks. People may end up not taking any new subsequent alert systems seriously.

Imagine if your teacher decided to change the grading in the middle of a semester or your significant other suddenly one day asked to change the definition of cheating. Such changes may make you wonder what the systems or definitions were based on in the first place. A changing alert system may prompt people to ignore any new alert system, believing that it’s only a matter of time before yet another change comes around.

That’s why consistency in an alert system is very important for people to take it seriously. An effective alert system should also be based primarily on science and not on political considerations or other interests. Otherwise, different special interests may believe that they can readily change the alert system just by lobbying the right people.

Again, what would happen if your significant other wanted to base the current definition of cheating on what he or she happened to do previous night? Additionally, each alert level should be connected to a clear distinct set of real actions. And these actions can’t be the same for different levels. You can’t have people thinking, “well it’s now high alert instead of medium alert, but we’ll just do the same thing.

” In other words, it can’t just be a by-the-way or a FYI system. An alert system should have clear sets of progressive levels with each jump linked to an escalating set of real actions. Going to a higher level should clearly mean something.

Finally, an effective system must remind everyone that we are still in the midst of a pandemic, a public health emergency, and that there are science-backed ways and reasons to slow the transmission of the virus. The Covid-19 coronavirus isn’t just like a state of mind. It isn’t going to go away simply because everyone has decided to ignore it.

As is the case with a relationship, ignoring the warning signs and not taking proper steps can draw out the whole process and lead to a lot more heartache. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn . Check out my website .

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