Former NIH Dir. Admits to ‘Narrow,’ ‘Really Unfortunate’ Pandemic Mindset: ‘We Weren’t Thinking’ About Collateral Damage

EXCERPT:

COLLINS: “The public health people, we talked about this earlier and this is a really important point, if you’re public health person and you’re trying to make a decision, you have this very narrow view of what the right decision is, and that is something that will save a life. Doesn’t matter what else happened. So, you attach infinite value to stopping the disease and saving a life. You attach a zero value to whether this actually totally disrupts people’s lives, ruins the economy and has many kids kept out of school in a way that they never quite recovered from."
UNKNOWN: "Collateral damage."
COLLINS: "Yeah, collateral damage. This is a public health mindset, and I think a lot of us involved, in trying to make those recommendations, had that mindset, and that was really unfortunate. It's another mistake we made."

(via Mediaite)