How should the government respond to the next pandemic?

As a physician, former chief of neuroradiology at Stanford, advisor to the president and a member

of the White House Coronavirus Task Force in 2020, I am often asked this question.

Here's my answer.

Don't close schools.

Don't shut down businesses.

Don't mandate masks or drugs. And most importantly,

don't give up your freedom to politicians, bureaucrats, or anyone else. Ever. Sound extreme,

it shouldn't. What I'm suggesting is just common sense based on the evidence on ethical public health

policy. When COVID hit in early 2020, the White House proposed a 15-day pause to slow the spread.

A temporary, short-term measure to ensure hospitals could deliver care even in a worst-case scenario.

Beyond that, the approach would be standard pandemic management.

Stay home if sicker at high risk, protect the elderly and vulnerable, and let everyone else

continue with their lives.

But fear and politics overtook data and biology.

Politicians, governors, mayors and local officials, pushed for extended lockdowns, panicked

that they would be blamed for the rising

death toll. They aggressively seized new powers to justify their actions. 15 days turned into 15

months, and then some. The lockdowns failed in every respect. By fall 2022, nearly all Americans had been infected. Meanwhile, the harms caused by

the lockdowns cascaded across the entire society. Here are just three. One, health consequences.

Medical care was delayed or denied leading to unnecessary deaths. In spring 2020, nearly half of the 650,000

cancer patients skipped chemotherapy. And 85% of living organ transplants were cancelled. Emergency room

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