In the noise from the media pronouncements on the coronavirus pandemic there were only a few reliable sources of balanced and insightful analysis of COVID-19 related issues. One of the best was from the Atlantic magazine.
I have already written about the role that their COVID tracking project played in monitoring the pandemic at a time when we could not trust even the U.S. government’s statistics. I actually suggested that they should receive a Pulitzer Prize for that work. Fortunately, one of the magazine’s writers, Ed Yong, has now been awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his writing on the pandemic
Ed Yong, who has been a staff writer for The Atlantic since 2015, received the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for his explanatory reporting on the pandemic. I felt he wrote articles that were easily understood without having a background in science, but had enough detail to truly explain the topic. I called out several of his articles when he challenged traditional public health concepts of viral control and definitions of what are now being called “variant” viruses.
To get a feeling for the breadth of Ed’s contributions, take a look at the Atlantic’s compendium of his articles and link to his COVID-19 pieces. Referring to them at this point in time reminds us how he understood the approaching pandemic before almost anyone else and realized the implications from several of the failures of America’s public health authorities.
I strongly recommend that you take a look at Ed’s work and appreciate someone who was willing to speak to data regardless of who it angered.
Pandemic Pondering 
I agree, I appreciated the Atlantic’s pandemic coverage; I was previously unfamiliar with the publication prior but found it’s coverage balanced and insightful.
I too was disappointed in the performance of our public health “authorities”, but in their defense most of them seemed to have little “authority” at any level, nor have the respect or cooperation of the “public”. I felt the pain of my county health department director who tried in vain to stop former President Trump’s campaign rally in June, held indoors in our large convention center in Tulsa with a mostly maskless crowd with no social distancing.
I felt glad I had not chosen public health as a specialty myself; it was hard enough as a family physician getting folks to cooperate with simple viral control measures.
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Agree entirely. Best, JB
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