Dr. Celine Gounder, a member of President-elect Joe Biden’s COVID-19 advisory board, said people need to wear masks and social distance to get the virus in the United States under control.”
And now that we’re indoors more we need to be keeping windows and doors open as much as possible,” she told “CBS This Morning” on Thursday. “We need to be getting tested frequently, and if somebody reaches out to you, a contract tracer reaches out to you about a potential exposure, please work with them so that we can help identify where the virus is spreading.”
Gounder, an infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and Bellevue Hospital, noted that mask wearing has become politicized, adding: “It would be like politicizing the use of toilet paper.”
“This is a very basic hygienic public health measure that we need — all of us need to be taking personal responsibility, for ourselves, for our health, for the health of our family, the health of our community,” she said. “And we need to mask up. That is something that is in our power to do right now and can make a tremendous difference in curbing the spread of the disease.”
She also said she doesn’t like the word “lockdown,” which implies an on or off switch, “when really what we’re talking about is a dimmer switch, or a dial.”
What we need to be “tightening up right now” is indoor dining and other things like going to bars and indoor gyms,” she said. Indoor dining is “a major spreader of the infection” and we need to figure out creative ways to do more dining outdoors and “put a pause on indoor dining.”
Watch her full interview:
