Tony's Diary Package — page 220

ire Georgetown's Phelan, who acknowledges the downsides of social distancing for economies. European countries' "initial reopening phase was more or less comparable to our full lockdown phase. And they were much more judicious and consistent in how they applied it," said Konyndyk. "They had a much more hard-nosed and a much more consistent approach to limiting transmission." The experts acknowledged that Covid-19 has proven to be a fearsome opponent and that small flare-ups can quickly mushroom into major outbreaks, changing the calculus on which countries have contained the virus. But for now, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control -- modeled on the U.S. CDC -- has given European countries a pat on the back last week. "Decreasing trends in disease incidence are observed and sustained" in almost all EU countries, the European health agency's latest threat assessment declared. While no one knows exactly which types of social distancing measures are best, or just how intense they need to be, the ECDC said, "such measures appear to have been associated, at least temporarily, with decreases in the number of newly reported cases." "The lesson for the United States, in my opinion, is ... the only strategy, in the absence of the vaccine and specific therapy, during the Covid-19 pandemic is social isolation and the use of masks," said Indolfi, the Italian cardiologist. Indolfi -- who lives in Calabria, a southern region of Italy that experts worried was at high risk if Covid-19 got a foothold, given its lack of infrastructure -- noted that his nation's coronavirus intensive care wards are virtually empty and that the pandemic "can be considered practically over." "At the present time, in Italy people consider themselves safer," he said. Several experts like Phelan, who also serve as public health professors, said that they'd already begun incorporating the U.S. response into their classes as a lesson on public health failures. "I know for my course, this is pretty much going to be all we'll talk about," said Phelan, who teaches national and global health law at Georgetown. Kates, of the Kaiser Family Foundation, concluded, "You would not look to the United States as a case study of how to do this well. The U.S. has in the past, and could in the future, shown tremendous leadership in health crises. ... The fact that we couldn't do it in this case -- it is depressing, as a global health person." Harvard's Jha, who said he's long championed some flexibilities in the U.S. health system compared to nations with socialized health care, said he's come to