In Health Affairs Forefront, the Council’s Thoai Ngo calls for biomedical and social and behavioral know-how, captured in the Swiss Cheese Model, to suppress transmission of COVID-19 and prevent deaths.
The Swiss Cheese Model is a multilayer approach using both vaccines and non-pharmacological interventions (NPIs) to mitigate the risk of infection and suppress the spread of COVID-19.
NPIs include vaccine incentives and mandates, improvement of building ventilation, high-quality masks, accessible testing, social distancing, and promotion of credible and consistent public health communications.
Ngo writes that, although each intervention alone is flawed in preventing COVID-19, the combination of all of them is the best way to reduce risk.
Read Ngo’s urgent and powerful call for a comprehensive scientific response to the pandemic in Health Affairs Forefront.