I want to lead here by talking a little bit about my credentials
to bring this up with you,
because, quite honestly,
you really, really should not listen to any old person with an opinion
about COVID-19.
(Laughter)
So I've been working in global health for about 20 years,
and my specific technical specialty is in health systems
and what happens when health systems experience severe shocks.
I've also worked in global health journalism,
I've written about global health and biosecurity
for newspapers and web outlets,
and I published a book a few years back about the major global health threats
facing us as a planet.
I have supported and led epidemiology efforts
that range from evaluating Ebola treatment centers
to looking at transmission of tuberculosis in health facilities,
and doing avian influenza preparedness.
I have a Masters Degree in International Health.
I'm not a physician. I'm not a nurse.
My specialty isn't patient care or taking care of individual people.
My specialty is looking at populations and health systems:
what happens when diseases move on the large level.
If we're ranking sources of global health expertise
on a scale of one to 10,
one is some random person ranting on Facebook
and 10 is the World Health Organization,
I'd say you can probably put me at like a seven or an eight.
So keep that in mind as I talk to you.