The harms of COVID panic are cautionary tales for the bird flu

Back in the summer of 2020, I warned the public loudly about the long and short-term impact of closing schools. Not only was the emerging COVID pandemic likely to spread into communities even more if schools were closed, but the damage done to children in terms of learning and socialization would be prodigious and long-term.      

It turned out I was right, and not just because there was no real science to back these closures but because public health strategies should not be based on fear but on a balance that accounts for the consequences of any superimposed action or limitation. Fear-driven strategies to contain or control always backfire. 

I didn’t need to see the impact on math and reading test scores back in 2020 to know they would happen. It was predictable that by 2024, an Education Week State of Teaching survey would find teachers are concerned about an erosion of basic skills, with socialization, sharing and listening lacking among their young students even as the rate of ADHD rises to over 11 percent. 

Of course, many of these same teachers are hypocrites who backed school closures back in 2020, 2021 and 2022 because they were afraid of catching the dreaded virus.  

Considering the harm of our public health interventions (from closures to unproven mask and vaccine mandates) is a crucial lesson that I don’t think we have learned. If anything, the illness and death of the COVID pandemic renders us vulnerable to overreacting to the next potential scourge as evidenced by the growing fear of another potentially dangerous virus, H5N1 bird flu.      

H5N1 bird flu has been killing poultry by the millions, with culling used to kill millions more to prevent spread for more than two decades. Through that time it has rarely infected or killed a human. The current isolated human cases in Texas, Michigan and Mexico don’t change anything. But it does fuel the fearmongering, including some epidemiologists calling for stockpiling of the anti-flu drugs, which would send the wrong message that a massive outbreak is in the offing. 

Don’t get me wrong, it is somewhat concerning that this bird flu has spread among several different species of mammals including cattle, and experiments using ferrets which frequently serve as human models for flu spread has shown it is contagious, though less than seasonal flu. 

Dr. Mandy Cohen, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been effective so far at combining caution with calm messaging. She appears to have learned from the hysteria of the COVID response. 

When I asked her if she was concerned about the ferret experiments, she said “Not any more than the other species we are seeing  — barnyard cats, alpacas, some rodents.”  

“They are reservoirs for the virus to change and potential vehicles to spread it further.  Animals with more human contact are obviously of increased interest and focus …. to make sure folks are thinking about their exposure risk,” she explained.

We are a species barrier and several mutations away from a bird flu outbreak among humans. The fact that our health authorities are tracking it should reassure us as long as they don’t overreact.                                                                        

Lessons from COVID include better preparation with vaccines, rapid testing, antivirals, information sharing, as well as much less superimposed dogma or threats. Most of all we need to emphasize the potential cost of any public health intervention, especially too far in advance of a real threat.

Marc Siegel, M.D., is a professor of medicine and medical director of Doctor Radio at NYU Langone Health. He is a Fox News medical correspondent and author of the new book, “COVID; The Politics of Fear and the Power of Science.”