Dr. Thomas Farley spent much of his adult life preparing for this moment: leading a large US city through a worldwide pandemic. The health commissioner of Philadelphia is a North Jersey native, a pediatrician and an epidemiologist with a deep background in studying infectious diseases, particularly with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Farley and I spoke via Zoom and went back to those early days of the pandemic to discuss what worked, what didn't and whether it was tough to get people on board early on. He also offers optimism about an end to the pandemic and the chance of developing an effective vaccine.
Recorded August 28, 2020.
In this podcast:
Dr. Farley addresses why he seems so calm despite the chaotic nature a pandemic can bring (1:58), offers thoughts on how some people form opinions not based on science and how some even shun advice from medical professionals (2:51), talks about his time with the CDC, what he learned and how it prepared him for this job (3:32), if he feared "the big one" when it came to a fast-spreading virus (4:45), we talk about his comments on February 25, 2020, the day before the United States had its first official case of "local transmission" of the coronavirus (5:45), if he received pushback from his early, stern comments and warnings (6:31), what the most important decision was after Philadelphia saw its first official cases in March (7:07), what he would have done differently with nursing homes, which saw half of the overall deaths early on (8:04), how states that reopened too early impacted Philadelphia (9:30), handling the H1N1 pandemic as health commissioner in New York City (10:50), his reaction to comments from some people that suggest older people are "expendable" when getting life back to normal (12:27), the extended benefits we might see from the social distancing, the mask wearing and better hygiene and the upcoming flu season (14:05) what our chances are in developing treatments or vaccines for COVID-19 (15:25), how he will handle an announcement that a vaccine has been developed (16:12), if he thinks the coronavirus will become endemic in the US (17:25), our speed round begins (18:47), we discuss the economic impact of the shutdown orders (19:47), what Dr. Farley thinks about shaking hands in the future (20:50), if he's received hate mail/email/social media messages (22:10), his vision of the future for Philadelphia, a city hit hard by the pandemic and the shutdowns (22:50), how we might handle the next pandemic (24:53), using South Korea as a model, given its experience with SARS ahead of COVID-19 (24:48), if we will be wearing masks forever (25:19), why he thinks it's still important to focus on general health matters like smoking, salt intake and obesity (25:41), if he is hopeful about the NFL starting its season in September (27:12).