Authored by Sandro Galea and Karestan Koenen.
On March 11, 2020 the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. In the days that followed, schools across the country closed, businesses declared non-essential shut their doors, and Americans were told to stay at home. American citizens met the challenge, altering their entire way of life within days and continuing to uphold these changes 10 weeks and counting. Collectively, citizens changed their behavior for the good of the nation’s health. In remarkably short order, Americans were asked to change their behavior, and we did so, quickly and effectively flattening the curve.
Anyone who has made a New Year resolution knows that changing one’s behavior to improve one’s health is difficult at best. Public health slogans focused on individual behavior change such as “eat less, move more” have not bent the curve for obesity, heart disease, or diabetes. The dramatic declines in motor vehicle-related mortality over the past several decades have not been attributed to better driving behavior, but to seatbelt use, airbags, shatterproof glass, and laws monitoring driving while under the influence of alcohol. In other words, when we have improved health, it has seldom been because we chose to behave differently. This moment is, therefore, particularly important because so many in the past months have changed their behaviors.
Read the full piece on Thrive Global.
Photo by Gustavo Fring from Pexels.