January 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 36

DR . SANJAY GUPTA
proved both
While Dr. Gupta's presentation
informative and
engaging, NRPA and Parks &
Recreation magazine wanted
to
learn more from this renowned
health expert. Recently, Kellie May,
NRPA's vice president of programs
and partnerships, sat down with Dr.
Gupta to discuss lessons learned
from the coronavirus (COVID-19)
pandemic, why time spent in
nature is vital to our physical and
mental well-being, and how we
can prepare for the next worldwide
health emergency.
Kellie May: Your new book
focuses on the lessons
learned from the COVID-19
pandemic. What are the top
lessons that people should
learn from this global
health crisis?
Dr. Sanjay Gupta: There's a lot
of lessons. I think a couple that
really come to mind are that we
are increasingly living in a world
where...we're going to keep coming
in contact with new pathogens.
Most of them aren't going to be
consequential, but every now and
then, there will be something that's
more like a COVID. But while new
pathogens are inevitable, I think
pandemics are not. That's one of
the big lessons that we've learned.
These don't have to turn into pandemics.
With what we know now
[and] what we're capable of doing
now, we can contain these in ways
that we probably couldn't have
even a hundred years ago. Emerging
pathogens are inevitable, but
pandemics are not.
I think another one is - and I talked
about this in Phoenix - the idea
that bad information can be more
damaging and travel faster than the
virus itself. We need to have reliable
sources, trusted sources of informa36
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tion, and we've got to constantly
provide the context around that....
And along those lines, I think we
have to, as a society, be more comfortable
with uncertainty. There's a
lot of desire for certainty in these
situations, but [for those of us] in
the medical [profession], we live in
a probabilistic world. People think
science is about proof; it's about
likelihood given evidence. And so,
we need to constantly make sure we
message things in a way that's humble
about what we know and what
we don't know.
May: Thinking about
this pandemic - as you
mentioned, the world
really has changed around
us forever - what does
getting " back to normal "
look like to you?
Dr. Gupta: It'll take time to get back
to " a normal " and define what that
normal is exactly. We're dealing
with the flu and RSV [respiratory
syncytial
virus] now and things
like that. But I've long used...a sort
of weather storm...analogy when
thinking about the normal. I think
we were very accustomed to living
our lives with a very huge, unpredictable
thing, which is the weather.
Is it going to rain today? Is it
going to be sunny? Am I carrying
an umbrella or not? How do you
dress? We think about that kind
of [thing] almost without thinking
about it. Now you have a weather
app or you may get it on the news,
whatever.
[Thinking
about]
viral
outbreaks
and the idea...that these
pathogens are going to continue
to emerge, a new normal actually
has a weather storm-like analogy
here. In China, they have quality
metrics that they put out there in
terms of the air quality. And peo|
PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G
May: You've already said
that there's a probability
that new variants will
emerge. They will continue
to spread. What can we
do as a country to prevent
the next pandemic?
ple will wear masks, or not, or
go...do physical activity outside
based on [those metrics]. I [believe]
we're going to be thinking
about viruses the same way.
Right now, we sort
of
think
about [a virus] like it's going to
come, there's nothing we can do
about it - hunker down, let it pass,
and then re-emerge. We're going to
have to dance with these viruses as
opposed to continuously just going
into complete shutdown mode.
And I think a lot of that is treating
it like a weather thing. We don't
stop our lives when it rains outside;
it's the same thing. I think with regard
to the technology around vaccines
and the idea of having booster
shots and flu shots - about less
than half the country was getting a
flu shot before the pandemic - the
data is very clear on how protective
those are, especially for people who
are elderly and have pre-existing
conditions. That's just got to be a
way of life. I don't know [if] that
means that they need to be mandated
or anything - most healthcare
is not mandated - but I think
it's just going to be normalized in a
way that people are very comfortable
with that.
The last thing I would say, in
terms of getting back to normal, is
almost a philosophical thing. We're
still at about 300 deaths a day from
COVID. That's like a jumbo jet
crashing every day. That's a lot.
Are we willing to accept that? I
think [we have to be] real honest
about what we're willing to accept.
January 2023 - Parks & Recreation

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