The 2024 Olympic Games are serving up some less-than-subtle metaphors for how poorly we handle public health. Just after winning a bronze medal in the much-anticipated men\u2019s 200-meter race, U.S. sprinter Noah Lyles collapsed on the track in exhaustion \u2014 not just because he\u2019d completed a brutal run in just 19.7 seconds, finishing third, but also because he was sick with COVID-19, a diagnosis that he\u2019d concealed from others. He had been favored to take home gold, as he did in the 100-meter race a few days earlier.<\/p>\n
But seeing an American Olympic star sprawled out and gasping on the track, and then taken away in a wheelchair, was more than a shocking image. It also represented the general \u201cmission accomplished\u201d attitude toward SARS-CoV-2: We think we\u2019ve won against this virus and we haven\u2019t.<\/p>\n
COVID isn\u2019t just spreading like wildfire through the Olympic Village in Paris \u2014 we are undergoing surges across the globe, with the World Health Organization tracking steep rises in infections in 84 countries. After more than four years fighting this thing, it is still knocking us out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The 2024 Olympic Games are serving up some less-than-subtle metaphors for how poorly we handle public health. Just after winning a bronze medal in the much-anticipated men\u2019s 200-meter race, U.S. sprinter Noah Lyles collapsed on the track in exhaustion \u2014 not just because he\u2019d completed a brutal run in just 19.7 seconds, finishing third, but also because he was sick with COVID-19, a diagnosis that he\u2019d concealed from others. He had been favored to take home gold, as he did in the 100-meter race a few days earlier.<\/p>\n
But seeing an American Olympic star sprawled out and gasping on the track, and then taken away in a wheelchair, was more than a shocking image. It also represented the general \u201cmission accomplished\u201d attitude toward SARS-CoV-2: We think we\u2019ve won against this virus and we haven\u2019t.<\/p>\n
COVID isn\u2019t just spreading like wildfire through the Olympic Village in Paris \u2014 we are undergoing surges across the globe, with the World Health Organization tracking steep rises in infections in 84 countries. After more than four years fighting this thing, it is still knocking us out.<\/p>\n