Dr. Katherine Gergen Barnett told Boston Public Radio on Monday that people should be wary of leaders touting success in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, as at least 30 states are seeing an uptick in cases.
"It's always interesting to hear briefings where there's so much reassurance given, I think the beginning of every reassurance (Vice President Mike) Pence gave was very much about the financial uptick of reopening," said Barnett. "Texas, Florida and Arizona are in pretty deep water right now, not only with the number rising of cases, but the acuity of cases, and the number of ICU beds that are being occupied."
While Massachusetts now has the lowest transmission rate in the nation according to a website tracking that data, Barnett implored people to reflect on the work everyone did to make that happen, and not move to relax guidelines or their own behavior too quickly.
"Many of us feel very protective of the work we've done to date to get our numbers so low, and I will tell you come April 20 of this year when we were really at the height, we didn't know when and if and how we'd get to such a good place as we are right now," she said.
Barnett said in lieu of any coherent national response, residents need to continue to be vigilant about who they are interacting with, and policymakers need to monitor who is traveling into and out of the state, in order to effectively be able to trace contacts of people who may be exposed to COVID-19.
New England states have put varied quarantine requirements on visitors from out of state, while Massachusetts' current guidance on quarantining measures for visitors from out of state remains an advisory.
Dr. Katherine Gergen Barnett is the Vice Chair of Primary Care Innovation and Transformation and the Program Director in the Department of Family Medicine at Boston Medical Center. Barnett also took calls from listeners about all things COVID-19 during her time with Boston Public Radio.
