As we await this winter’s uncertain burden of respiratory illness (covid, RSV and influenza), it’s worth remembering the spring of 2020, when health care systems nationwide were becoming overwhelmed with covid.

Almost all states moved to protect their health care systems by issuing “stay-at-home orders,” stricter than any I had imagined in nearly 40 years of prior Public Health work.

Healthcare systems were strained! We called healthcare workers “heroes” for good reasons. It was very hard to find a hospital bed anywhere. Stay-at-home orders helped healthcare systems keep operating.

Four states had good data to assess the impact of stay-at-home orders on the health care system. Researchers at the University of Minnesota examined hospital data for those four states. (jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2766673)

Each state started with an exponential rise in covid-19 hospitalizations, doubling every three to five days. The growth in hospitalization rates slowed in each state about 10-12 days after that state’s stay-at-home order was issued. This was a much faster decline than we would have seen from other causes.

Public Health measures had unintended consequences, especially for young children — for whom in-person contact with good teachers and with each other is especially important. Not all Public Health measures were as drastic, or as effective, as the stay-at-home orders.

Vaccines, medications, and natural immunity — each of which gives partial protection to individuals — eventually made a big difference. But, for a long time, Public Health measures like isolation, quarantine, masks, and “stay at home” helped preserve our country’s health care system.

Vaccines will be harder to find this fall, but they are important protection. Stay immunized, and contact your prescriber promptly if you get sick! That will help you avoid catastrophic illness, and it will keep most hospital beds available for someone else.

DAVE CUNDIFF, MD MPH

Ilwaco