Health committee  Thank you. That's a great question. The waste-water surveillance is an extremely helpful tool, especially when we don't have access to widespread community testing. It gives us an early signal as to where COVID-19 might be on the rise, or actually on the decline—although unfortu

Health committee  Going back to my last statement, I would say that the vast majority of people in medicine and science would say that the vaccines are safe and effective; and you have a small but very vocal group suggesting otherwise. Getting to your more recent question, masks, of course, are h

Health committee  No. It really is the highest risk at this point in time. That's key, getting the high-risk individuals timely access to those therapeutics.

Health committee  It's hard to give a number, because the rapid tests answer the question, “Am I contagious?” and not “Am I infected?” They answer the question, “Am I contagious right now with COVID-19?” They're actually very good at addressing that question. You might be a positive case but not

Health committee  Sure. We'll go with that.

Health committee  You can ask 20 people and get 20 different answers. I'm a little disappointed in serology. I think it does have some utility, but it has less utility than we thought. It's really good more in epidemiologic studies, looking at the burden of COVID in different communities and how

Health committee  Yes, this is clearly an issue. One of the key points here, though, is that with two and, of course, three doses of a vaccine, while the efficacy wanes more significantly for protection against infection, you still see very significant protection with three doses against severe ou

Health committee  I think there's still some skepticism toward the utility of vaccination in some proportion of the community—not a large proportion, but some proportion of the community. There may be some thoughts on therapeutics that might be as effective, such as ivermectin or hydroxycloroquine

Health committee  Vaccines are extremely safe and effective.

Health committee  I'd have to think about that a little more closely, but I think that would be very easy to come up with. When there is x burden of COVID in a particular community, it could be recommended to wear a mask at a certain point. Of course, mask-wearing would be voluntary at any point,

Health committee  Yes, I would be happy to help on that front.

Health committee  Yes. I would agree with that. I think we have to look at other metrics because we don't have that accurate a daily case count. Hospitalizations, unfortunately, and deaths are a delayed metric. We should be acting long before we see a rise in hospitalizations and deaths. I think

Health committee  I think they are excellent tests when they are used in the appropriate context. They answer the question “Am I transmissible to other people right now, yes or no?”, which is slightly different from the question “Am I infected with COVID, yes or no?” Some people test negative, but

Health committee  Yes. I actually think of it much more broadly. We want people to make smart decisions for themselves and data-driven decisions for themselves. The data is changing with time. Policy is going to change with time, and we have to keep 38 million people up to date and in touch with

Health committee  Yes. I agree in full.