COVID-19 Modeling | One Year Later: Affecting Health Policy

John Bridgeland, CEO of the COVID Collaborative, explains how their members use the weekly briefings to guide policy.

Transcription: On behalf of the COVID Collaborative, of which Chris Murray has been a key part since the beginning, I want to thank Chris and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, for their outstanding COVID-19 forecast briefs which, I have to confess, I've become very dependent upon, because we care so much how our actions, and those of others, are actually affecting the progress in our country.

We're in weekly briefings with the White House and we have regular discussions directly with governors on a bipartisan basis, and I can't tell you how invaluable these briefs have been in those settings, to understand where we are and where we're likely headed under various models, which is very uplifting to those who we're engaging with. 

On our work to increase mask wearing, for example, with influencers and governors, having these clear baselines and being able to paint a picture of how the future could actually be different with their involvement, with real data, has made a measureable difference in enlisting them in our campaigns. And we have other examples as well, but let me just thank Chris Murray and the Institute, and the whole team, for all you're doing for our country at this difficult time.