Covid 2022: Looking ahead

Entering the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, we talk with three people about their view of COVID: a physician leading clinical care for a large healthcare system, a reporter in Washington, D.C., covering national health policy, and a frontline doc in a hospital in Los Angeles County.

Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips, president of clinical operations at Providence, believes we're about to see the end of the pandemic and the beginning of endemic COVID - where the illness is less severe yet more widely seen in the general population. The unprecedented rapid development of vaccines has made this remarkable advance possible.

Julie Rovner, who has been following the Supreme Court's review of the Biden administration's mandates for workplace use of masks and testing, points to problems seen in public health messaging and the challenges the pandemic has posed for clear and concise advice for individuals, clinicians, parents, and employers. 

And, despite the hope that the end of the pandemic may be in sight, Dr. Zahra Esmail reminds us that today the ICUs are still full, people are still dying, and the suffering wrought by the virus is far from over. 

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Amy Compton-Phillips, M.D.

President, Clinical Care Operations

Providence Health

Renton, Wash.

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Julie Rovner

Chief Washington Correspondent

Kaiser Health News

Washington, D.C.

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Zahra Esmail, D.O.

Palliative Care Physician

Little Company of Mary Medical Center

Torrance, Calif.

CONTRIBUTORS

• Amy Compton-Phillips M.D.
• Julie Rovner
• Zahra Esmail D.O.
• Seán Collins

KEYWORDS

• public health messaging
• endemic covid
• testing mandate
• mask mandate
• palliative care
• pandemic
• supreme court
• covid
• sars-cov-2