| By Tyler, 8th grade |
May 2020 … I recently interviewed Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey who is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and former chief executive officer of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
She said that our lives cannot return to normal until an effective vaccine or treatment is created. I completely agree with her. If there is no vaccine, what is going to stop the coronavirus from coming back just as strong as before?
Dr. Lavizzo-Mourey thinks that
kids’ lives are going to be affected in different ways. If students go back to
school without a vaccine, she said schools will likely operate differently. For
instance, schools might operate in shifts—some students might go to school in
the morning and others go later in the day. That way there would be less
interaction between people.
To stop this deadly virus, Dr. Lavizzo-Mourey said everyone should be educated about the virus. If people better understand the virus, they can “advocate for changes that will make a difference.”
She said the global community didn’t have the experience with such a large-scale pandemic. “When you think about why it got so bad so quickly, it was in part because we didn’t have the people trained to combat it,” she said.
Dr. Lavizzo-Mourey said there needs to be a bigger investment in public health to prepare for future outbreaks. “We will, hopefully, shift the amount of resources, the amount of money that we spend on things like public health,” she said.
In conclusion, in order to return to our normal lives, we must create a vaccine, educate people about the virus, and invest more money in public health. –Tyler is a reporter for the East Norriton Bulldog Bulldog
