It's now been 1,000 days since March 24, 2020, the day Baker's order limiting in-person gatherings and requiring many workers to stay home took effect. Today, epidemiologist Bill Hanage stands by the governor's order, with one caveat.
, an infectious disease specialist and colleague of Barczak's at MGH, agrees there was value in the 2020 shutdown, but he also emphasizes how far the state — and the science on COVID — has come since then.
Vaccines now exist that greatly reduce the risk of death from COVID. More than 90% of Massachusetts residents have received at least their first dose, one of the highest vaccination rates in the country. At this point in the pandemic, most experts also believe that many people likely have some natural immunity to COVID from a prior infection. In addition, doctors know more about treating the disease than they did when Baker told"non-essential" businesses to close their doors.
“We’re really in a very different place now, and I wouldn’t imagine such a thing would be needed [today]," Lemieux said."But I do think shutdowns were justified and saved many, many lives.”"With the current pandemic I find it hard to imagine," he said."But I don’t think we should forget that there will be other pandemics in the future, and we should be prepared to not take anything off the table.
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