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Boston Globe
03-03-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
Six things we got wrong about COVID-19
To some, those changes read like flip-flops and contributed to a sharp decline in Americans' trust in science. But revisions like those are normal, experts said. 'This was a completely new disease,' said Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes, chief of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Scientists based their initial recommendations on COVID-19's similarities to other viruses. And they prioritized saving lives, preventing hospitals from being overwhelmed and preserving protective equipment for essential workers. Scientists did, however, miss an opportunity to educate the public about uncertainty and to admit they could be wrong, Kuritzkes said. Advertisement We talked with infectious disease experts about early misconceptions about COVID-19 and how our understanding of the disease evolved from early 2020 until today. A woman walked out of JP Licks on Beacon Hill after grabbing take out a day after Governor Charlie Baker issued a stay at home advisory for all non-essential workers on March 24, 2020. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff MISCONCEPTION: COVID poses a low risk to the general public Though scientists said early on the In the early months of the pandemic, scientists assumed COVID would behave like other coronaviruses and mainly spread through close, prolonged contact. As studies emerged showing COVID was mainly transmitted through aerosols, guidance changed and the risk to Americans was understood as higher. 'Science advances by incorporating new information as it emerges, resulting in changes to recommendations,' said Kuritzkes. That doesn't mean people should be skeptical of scientists, but aware that information — and diseases — can evolve. For example, while the bird flu currently poses a low risk for humans because it hasn't spread from person-to-person, experts said the risk could change as time goes on and the virus acquires new mutations. MISCONCEPTION: COVID is not airborne Dr. Peter Hotez of Houston's Baylor College of Medicine said global scientists initially declaring that COVID was not airborne was the 'single biggest mistake that was made.' In March 2020, the World Health Organization posted on Twitter, now known as X: 'FACT: #COVID19 is NOT airborne,' adding that virus particles are 'too heavy' to hang in the air. Later, Advertisement FACT: The To protect yourself: -keep 1m distance from others -disinfect surfaces frequently -wash/rub your 👐 -avoid touching your 👀👃👄 — World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) Experts said early recommendations about the virus were based on other coronaviruses, not the one that causes COVID-19. 'There's not many true airborne respiratory viruses that are transmitted [like COVID],' Hotez said. WHO didn't recognize the virus as airborne until late 2021. Misconception: You need to wash packages and groceries Initial belief that COVID mainly spread through close contact with large droplets led many to wash and disinfect anything that came in from outside, including packages and food, a practice Hotez called 'pretty much a waste of time.' In a YouTube Reflecting back on the video now, VanWingen said his advice came at a time when officials were working to 'flatten the curve' and operating with 'aggressive caution as things became more clear.' 'This was the first big pandemic that many of us in the healthcare field had to struggle through,' he wrote in an email to the Globe. 'Science was happening in real time at a fast pace as we worked to understand the virus and its impact.' While some COVID transmission could be linked to droplets, it turned out that this was a 'minor mode of transmission' compared to aerosol spread, according to Kuritzkes. Advertisement State Representative Chynah handed out face masks at Nubian Station in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, MA on April 29, 2020. Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff MISCONCEPTION: People don't need to wear masks Partial knowledge of how COVID spread was also linked to The recommendation went viral with a February 2020 Tweet from then-Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who wrote, 'Seriously people — STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching Public health officials largely started recommending masking for everyone in early April 2020. Still, officials said earlier masking recommendations could have had a 'pretty profound impact' on the virus' spread. 'If there had been guidance and widespread adoption of masking early on, it is possible that many fewer people might have become infected,' Kuritzkes said. He added that an earlier appreciation of the ability of masks to prevent COVID could have also limited some of the widespread closures of businesses. Physician Alister Martin received one of the first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine from RN Jennifer Lisciotti at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA on December 16, 2020. Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff MISCONCEPTION: Vaccines will take years to create COVID-19 vaccines — which were first The speed at which the COVID vaccine was developed has been a In reality, the reason for the shortened timeline was that mRNA vaccines had been in the works for years before COVID erupted. 'We were extraordinarily lucky, and we're lucky that there had been a substantial investment in basic vaccine technology,' Kuritzkes said. Advertisement In 2023, two scientists were awarded the MISCONCEPTION: The pandemic will end when we reach herd immunity Now, experts agree society never reached 'herd immunity' as it was thought of initially. That's because vaccines and previous infections did not stop the virus from spreading, as initially believed. Vaccine makers also had trouble creating updated shots quickly enough to keep pace with the virus's evolution. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said vaccines provide 'incredible protection' against the virus in the first two months. But as immunity starts to fade, people become susceptible to COVID once again. 'What wasn't understood was the concept of waning immunity that we saw with other coronavirus vaccines,' he said. Vaccines did, however, make COVID-19 far less severe and allowed many of us to put the pandemic behind us. A young girl takes in a memorial in the front of Amaral's Central Market in Fall River on April 25, 2020. A beloved family-run business in Fall River, it has seen three members of the family die this month from COVID-19. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff Emily Spatz can be reached at
CBS News
09-02-2025
- CBS News
Woman who says she was attacked on Boston street calls for more safety measures
BOSTON - A Boston woman is warning others after she said she was attacked by a man near her apartment on Beacon Hill Friday night. Says man grabbed her by the neck Brenna Martinez said she was walking home from JP Licks on Charles Street at around 9:45 p.m. on Friday. She crossed through an alley and noticed two men walking behind her. She stopped to let them pass and that's when she said one of the man attacked her. She said he grabbed her by the neck and told her not to say a word. "I just fully believed that he was going to rape me or stab me. And so I just screamed so loud, I did not stop screaming, I tried to push back, he pushed the ice cream into my chest," said Martinez. The two men ran off and the Boston Police Department is actively looking for the suspects. Police are asking for anyone with any information to reach out to them. Martinez described the men as skinny and White. She's speaking out now and sharing her experience on social media. Her TikTok recounting the story of the attack already more than 50,000 views. Calling for more safety measures Martinez said she hopes that her posts on social media can help raise awareness, create change and make her community a safer place. "There's so many women that said this exact same thing happened to me," said Martinez. "I was like, if I don't post on TikTok, they're not going to say anything, there are women who are not safe right now and I could have died." Martinez is hopeful that police can find her attackers but in the meantime, she will be advocating for changes in her community. She's calling for more security cameras throughout Beacon Hill to help women feel safe.
