{"id":18966,"date":"2020-12-18T11:10:28","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T16:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thepapergown.zocdoc.com\/?p=18966"},"modified":"2023-03-21T14:41:14","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T19:41:14","slug":"the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know\/","title":{"rendered":"The Biggest Things We’ve Learned About COVID \u2014 and What We Still Don’t Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

The information included in this article was current as of publication, however, information changes rapidly regarding Covid-19 and may be out of date.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The coronavirus pandemic upended life as we know it in 2020. While we\u2019ve learned a lot about this virus and the illness it causes, COVID-19, there\u2019s still a lot we need to figure out. We <\/span>spoke to several healthcare experts and infectious disease specialists to assess our current understanding of COVID. Here\u2019s what they say are the most important discoveries we\u2019ve made, as well as the biggest questions left to answer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Important things we know<\/span><\/h1>\n


\n1. Most people who get COVID don\u2019t get severely ill, but the risk of severe illness (and death) increases with age.<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

Most people who get COVID develop symptoms \u2014 but they don\u2019t necessarily get sick enough to require hospitalization. According to a <\/span>recent <\/span>JAMA <\/span><\/i>article<\/span><\/a>, COVID infections are severe or critical for as much as 20 percent of people who have symptomatic cases. \u201cWe\u2019re confident now we understand the risk factors for severe disease,\u201d says <\/span>Dr. Michael Chang<\/span><\/a>, an infectious disease physician at UTHealth in Houston. \u201cObesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and age are factors for severe illness. The infection-to-fatality rate is higher for older patients \u2014 over 60 and especially over 75.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>We also know that anyone infected with COVID can spread the disease, whether or not they have symptoms. <\/span>Back in the spring, the existence of \u201csilent carriers\u201d \u2014 not to mention their prevalence \u2014 was up for debate. Now we at least know that asymptomatic transmission does contribute to the spread of the virus.<\/p>\n

2. <\/span>Masks absolutely help limit the spread of COVID.<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

Across the board, experts emphasize the critical role mask-wearing plays in protecting people ith both asymptomatic and symptomatic COVID from infecting others. \u201cEarly on there was not much evidence of mask use being effective in community settings,\u201d says <\/span>Joshua Petrie<\/span><\/a>, an assistant professor in the department of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. \u201cWe\u2019ve learned a lot more about the primary modes of transmission \u2014 that is, airborne via respiratory droplets \u2014 that made it clear masks are very effective at containing COVID\u2019s spread.\u201d Regular, non-clinical-grade cloth masks <\/span>can block between<\/span><\/a> 50 and 70 percent of the aerosols and larger droplets known to carry COVID.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe need better access to testing to get us to the other side of this.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A better understanding of how COVID-19 spreads confirms the importance of both masks and social distancing as disease-prevention tools \u2014 and dispels fears about getting COVID from objects (aka fomites). \u201cThere was a lot of concern early on about contact with affected surfaces but that doesn\u2019t seem as important as we originally thought,\u201d Chang says. \u201cCOVID can still spread from surfaces, so hygiene is very important, but a package from the grocery store isn\u2019t likely to infect your table. And as far as the food itself \u2014 things you\u2019d consume \u2014 those are not major modes of transmission.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Chang notes that mask-wearing needs to continue even after vaccines become available to more people. \u201cJust because a lot of people are vaccinated doesn\u2019t mean we can stop wearing face masks or socially distancing,\u201d Chang says. \u201cEven a vaccine that is 95 percent effective at preventing severe disease leaves five percent of recipients who could still get sick.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Loss of taste and smell are telltale COVID symptoms.<\/span><\/h3>\n

A number of relatively benign (if annoying) symptoms can be signs of COVID. \u201cIt has a range of symptoms,\u201d Chang says, \u201cfrom no symptoms to severely ill, like heart failure and respiratory illness.\u201d Some symptoms of COVID, l<\/span>ike body aches, headaches and a runny nose, are also symptoms of other (much less serious) respiratory diseases. \u201cBut if you experience the loss of smell and taste \u2014 that it\u2019s a specific symptom of COVID-19.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

We also know the disease attacks not only the lungs but also the heart, gut and brain. There’s even something called \u201cCOVID toes.\u201d \u201cWe know the physical impacts and manifestations of COVID-19,\u201d says <\/span>Melissa Hawkins<\/span><\/a>, an epidemiologist at American University. “<\/span>These include damage to lung tissue with respiratory compromise or failure in the most severe cases, which is the most common cause of death from the disease. But it also affects multiple other organs and organ systems. There\u2019s data that shows it can damage the circulatory system and cause blood clotting which has been associated with increased risk of stroke and other complications. We also learned recently that the skin can be affected.\u201d<\/p>\n

4. Testing can help control the spread.<\/span><\/h3>\n

COVID testing is an important tool for limiting the spread of the disease before we achieve widespread vaccination, says <\/span>Denis Nash<\/span><\/a>, a professor of epidemiology at the CUNY School of Public Health. \u201cWe rely on testing to be able to manage the risk and identify people who are at risk early and isolate them. The more people who know their status, especially when they\u2019re infected, [the] better, so they can act accordingly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

“Just because hospitals appear to be standing, it doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re operating at the level they should be.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, testing is a more effective disease-containment tool when tests are easy to get and the results come back quickly. That hasn\u2019t consistently been the case with COVID. \u201cWe know now the challenges of scaling up testing,\u201d Nash says. \u201cWe learned it\u2019s really hard to provide access to testing in a uniform way in a single state or jurisdiction.\u201d He envisions advances that allow for home-based, rapid testing that can be self-administered without a lab or healthcare provider. \u201cIt\u2019s important to bridge us through this long period of time where there\u2019s transmission, cases, and death. We need better access to testing to get us to the other side of this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

5. COVID isn’t easy to treat. In fact, it’s really hard.<\/span><\/h3>\n

COVID has proved to be a particularly hard illness to control. \u201cIt\u2019s a tough virus to treat,\u201d says Dr. Anne Liu<\/span><\/a>, an infectious disease physician at Stanford Health Care. \u201cWe\u2019ve tried antiviral immune modulators and repurposing antibiotics, to hydroxychloroquine and interferon. There\u2019s no magic bullet. COVID is humbling. It\u2019s been a failure of a lot of medications that were initially promising.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And though some treatments such as remdesivir and convalescent plasma therapy have been effective in mitigating the severity of COVID, their benefits are more effective for certain stages and manifestations of the illness. \u201cThey reduce the severity in some marginal way,\u201d Liu says, \u201cbut they don\u2019t work in a curative way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The elusiveness of effective treatment has exacerbated shortcomings in our healthcare system, as swelling case counts have shown us what happens at overwhelmed hospitals. \u201cIf you have five patients with COVID in a hospital, you can spend a lot more time on each person and optimize their care,\u201d Liu says. \u201cBut what we have now is a system that is stretched \u2014 limited by how many patients each nurse can treat, by the drugs for this many patients, and by the number of respiratory specialists who can run around calibrating respirators. Patients in these situations are not going to get the same amount of attention. Just because hospitals appear to be standing, it doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re operating at the level they should be.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>6. A vaccine for COVID can be whipped up in record time. (Thanks, scientists!)\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

The speed at which COVID vaccines have been developed is historic, Hawkins says. “We’ve seen the extraordinary possibility of science collaborating on a global level.” What traditionally takes years has happened in months.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Usually,” she continues, “scientists are invested in their own specific area of research, but this was an example of everyone turning their work and capabilities in the lab to support this effort to the best of their abilities. It’s been all hands on deck,” she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

It didn’t hurt that scientists had already spent years researching vaccines for two other coronaviruses, MERS and SARS. As soon as the coronavirus sprang up, scientists sprang into action and had a vaccine ready before<\/em> the first case of COVID in humans was reported.<\/p>\n

\n

Important things we don\u2019t know (yet)<\/span><\/h1>\n


\n1. Plenty about the vaccine<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

To much relief and excitement, we now have two vaccines approved for emergency use. The first one out of the gate, made by Pfizer\/BioNTech, is being administered to (mostly) healthcare workers across the country. Close behind is the Moderna vaccine, which will start being administered this week.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These vaccines proved to be highly effective (over 94 percent) in preventing COVID illness in clinical trials, as well as safe across the populations studied. Despite rigorous testing, there are still gaps in our knowledge. For one thing, while we know the COVID vaccines do a good job preventing symptomatic cases of COVID, Chang says, it’s unclear how <\/span>well they prevent infection itself. \u201cThe vaccine has been shown to prevent people who got the vaccine from getting sick from COVID-19 \u2014 but that doesn\u2019t mean necessarily they\u2019re not contagious. There\u2019s no data in the trials to support that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the huge questions that needs to be sorted out is why there\u2019s such a mortality difference from one demographic group to another.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We also don\u2019t know if Americans will be as receptive to vaccination as public health experts hope \u2014 and deem critical for herd immunity \u2014 as evidenced by <\/span>some initial wariness<\/span><\/a>. \u201cWe don\u2019t know what the vaccine\u2019s acceptance will be like,\u201d Hawkins says. \u201cWhat sort of hesitancy will there be when it\u2019s wildly available? There\u2019s a growing number of anti-vax pockets for a variety of reasons. If there are certain groups and sub-groups who are reluctant to vaccinate, that could be a real issue.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Those are just two of the unknowns on a fairly long list of things we don’t quite understand about the vaccine. Time (and data) will tell us more.<\/p>\n

2. Whether reinfection is something to worry about<\/span><\/h3>\n

Another issue we don\u2019t have a firm grasp of yet is how long COVID immunity lasts, and how concerned to be about reinfection, either by the same strain or a variant.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe still don\u2019t know the duration of natural or vaccine-based immunity,\u201d Nash says. \u201cWe hope it\u2019s for a long time \u2026 but we just don\u2019t know yet. There\u2019s not been enough time to observe people after they\u2019ve been infected or vaccinated to know if immunity is long term.\u201d<\/p>\n

True COVID reinfections appear to be rare, as only a handful have been reported. But scientists can only make educated guesses about their prevalence. It<\/span>\u2019s possible they’re more common than experts realize, and that the majority of second infections occur undetected. Confirming reinfection requires analyzing the genes of both cases to spot unambiguous differences.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith any infection, COVID or otherwise, you always expect some people will have reinfection,\u201d says Chang. \u201cThen it\u2019s a question of how contagious you are if you\u2019re reinfected.\u201d The nature and severity of reinfections, and how they compare to initial infections, aren’t well-understood yet either.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our understanding of immunity and reinfection gets even murkier when new coronavirus\u00a0 variants enter the picture. A number of variants have already been identified, and one strain currently circulating through the UK appears to be particularly infectious. There\u2019s a lot scientists don\u2019t know about the different coronavirus variants, including how they developed (they have theories). Fortunately, experts believe our current COVID vaccines can sufficiently protect us against the new variant (and any previously identified ones). As for the possibility of a variant <\/span>eventually<\/span><\/i> mutating enough to sneak past these vaccines? It\u2019s an open question.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAn evolution of COVID could allow it to evade our immune system \u2014 as with the flu,\u201d Petrie says.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Why COVID hits some populations so much harder than others, and why kids appear to be so much less vulnerable than adults<\/span><\/h3>\n

This much is certain: Black and Latinx people have been especially hard-hit by COVID, dying at <\/span>rates<\/a> nearly<\/span> three times higher than white, non-Hispanic people. The CDC summarizes this disparity by saying, \u201cRace and ethnicity are risk markers for other underlying conditions that affect health including socioeconomic status, access to health care, and exposure to the virus related to occupation.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But that doesn’t fully address the dire risks of being Black or Latinx with COVID. \u201cOne of the huge questions that needs to be sorted out is why there\u2019s such a mortality difference from one demographic group to another,\u201d Liu says. \u201cWe can speculate on the reasons, but we still need careful, rigorous science to answer. There\u2019s growing interest in understanding chronic stress related to racism with regards to health outcomes, for instance.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s critical to see long-haulers for what they are: a brand-new patient population with a serious, unnamed pre-existing condition.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We also don\u2019t fully understand why the infection rate appears to be so much lower among children, or why children who get COVID appear to be less infectious. \u201cWe\u2019re confident that kids are less likely to get infected and have lower risk of severe illness or hospitalization,\u201d Chang says. \u201cAnd they\u2019re less likely to spread illness to other kids and to adults \u2014 that\u2019s pretty clear across multiple countries over the timeline. It\u2019s not that they\u2019re immune or that they can\u2019t spread it, but it\u2019s less likely compared to adults. The amount of virus they are exposed to is similar to adults, so it\u2019s unclear why they don\u2019t spread it as much.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Other populations may also have a lower risk for COVID infection and severe illness. One such\u00a0 group is people with certain blood type, <\/span>according to a study published in the <\/span>Annals of Internal Medicine<\/span><\/i><\/a>. But so many unknown factors could affect how, and how badly, COVID affects different people and populations. We have a long way to go in understanding how this virus works.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

4. How COVID interacts with pregnancy<\/span><\/h3>\n

We don\u2019t know the long-term effects of COVID on pregnant women or children. Relatively low risk of infection and severe illness for children may mean minimal impact on newborns, but it will be years before we understand the full scope of COVID\u2019s impacts on a fetus.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor pregnancy, so far the information we have about women either getting COVID-19 while pregnant or getting pregnant after infection indicates there\u2019s not a risk for higher severity,\u201d Chang says. \u201cBut there\u2019s not great literature about long-term issues. And as far as the unborn or newborn, the long-term outcomes for those babies is unknown. Data suggests newborns infected early on are fine, but there\u2019s no data on long-term effects.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

5. How long the long tail of COVID really is<\/span><\/h3>\n

Though the pandemic has already affected us in irreversible ways, only time will tell how COVID will affect us in the months and years to come.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s only been around for a year, so the most follow-up we could have is one year,\u201d Chang says. \u201cAnd we have incomplete data on how many people have been infected and about everyone\u2019s symptoms.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Long COVID, as it\u2019s been called, emerged a few months after the first wave of COVID cases did. People with long COVID, or \u201clong haulers,\u201d reported a series of physiological and psychological symptoms far outlasting their initial infections. \u201cWe\u2019ve heard some post-infectious effects, like brain fog, difficulty breathing, and fatigue lasting several months after acute infection,” says Chang. \u201cBut as to other unseen consequences, we don\u2019t know yet.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Some long-haulers weren\u2019t that sick to begin with. They developed mild or moderate COVID infections \u2014 nothing serious enough to warrant hospitalization. But instead of recovering fully, they wound up with a maelstrom of leftover symptoms and new aftershocks, and became sicker than before.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Given how many Americans have had COVID, or currently do, it\u2019s critical to treat long COVID as an urgent public health problem. And it’s critical to see long-haulers for what they are: a brand-new patient population with a serious, unnamed pre-existing condition.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Long-haulers will need a lot \u2014 treatment, ongoing healthcare (including mental healthcare) and other support services, acknowledgment and coverage by insurance companies. There\u2019s work to do.<\/p>\n

6. How much asymptomatic carriers spread COVID<\/span><\/h3>\n

Masks, testing and quarantining are widely accepted as effective methods to contain the coronavirus. But while <\/span>the CDC has revised its recommendations<\/span><\/a> for self-isolation from two weeks to seven to 10 days depending on test results,<\/span> very little is understood about how contagious and prevalent asymptomatic COVID carriers are. <\/span><\/p>\n

While a Wuhan study<\/a> indicates asymptomatic cases may not be infectious, there is no consensus yet among experts.\u201cThe literature is wide ranging,\u201d Chang says.<\/p>\n

Some studies suggest a significant percentage of infections are caused by asymptomatic and\/or presymptomatic carriers.\u00a0<\/span>Asymptomatic carriers are people who contract the coronavirus but don\u2019t develop symptoms; presymptomatic carriers don\u2019t have symptoms when they spread the virus but go on to develop them later.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Knowing how, and how often, asymptomatic carriers infect others may help us limit the spread of COVID in communities as well as within individual households. Nash believes we need to rethink disease-prevention guidance for times when asymptomatic transmission is most likely to tear through a group of people.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBy the time a community goes into lockdown, like New York City did in the spring, the prevalence of the virus is at its peak,\u201d Nash says. \u201cThere\u2019s no talk of how to be safe with other household members, to consider recommendations of mask use at home when prevalence is high, even for a short amount of time, to reduce the spike in transmissions in households.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continues, \u201cThe assumption is everyone is quarantined because everyone could have been exposed, so everyone could potentially be infected, and mask-wearing in the home could help.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

7. How to fix our public health infrastructure and better protect people living in nursing homes and jails<\/span><\/h3>\n

COVID\u00a0 has forced more public acknowledgement of significant societal issues, including systematic health disparities due to race and income. The pandemic \u2014 and the loss of more than 300,000 American lives \u2014 has also made it clear that the US healthcare system was unprepared for something of this magnitude. How do we learn from this disaster?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we get on the other side, there\u2019s going to be a lot of analysis of what worked well, what didn\u2019t, where there was a lack of coordination and communication,\u201d Hawkins says. \u201cFor treatments and the vaccines, we\u2019ll see where there\u2019s a lack in the supply chain and [in] materials. We\u2019ll re-evaluate the distribution channels to be better prepared.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

We must also pay attention to how we failed highly vulnerable populations, particularly those in nursing homes and jails. \u201cWe haven\u2019t yet learned lessons from the outbreaks in jails, congregant settings and nursing homes that happened all around the country,\u201d Nash says. \u201cWe haven\u2019t learned to do effective infection control in these settings. It\u2019s a weak link in our public health armor. We know they\u2019re going to happen \u2014 healthcare workers are going into nursing homes or into congregant settings \u2014 but haven\u2019t figured out how to prevent spread from happening once someone from the community who is infected goes into one of those settings. They are not good at infection control in a pandemic situation. There are a lot of lessons there for this and future pandemics.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Looking for clear, reliable info about the COVID vaccine? Click here<\/a> to get updates from Zocdoc, right in your inbox.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Ready to book a doctor’s appointment? Visit Zocdoc.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tis the season for recapping the year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":18973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[227],"tags":[149],"class_list":["post-18966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guides","tag-covid19","reviewer-dr-nassim-assefi"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Biggest Things We've Learned About COVID \u2014 and What We Still Don't Know - Guides<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tis the season for recapping the year.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Biggest Things We've Learned About COVID \u2014 and What We Still Don't Know - Guides\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tis the season for recapping the year.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paper Gown\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-12-18T16:10:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-03-21T19:41:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/thepapergown.zocdoc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/kwhipple_zocdoc_corona_final_a.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"968\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"452\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matt Schneiderman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Matt Schneiderman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"14 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Matt Schneiderman\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e3d61a84901346618dfdb4ecc49d94d8\"},\"headline\":\"The Biggest Things We’ve Learned About COVID \u2014 and What We Still Don’t Know\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-18T16:10:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-03-21T19:41:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know\/\"},\"wordCount\":3284,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/thepapergown.zocdoc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/kwhipple_zocdoc_corona_final_a.png\",\"keywords\":[\"COVID-19\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Guides\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know\/\",\"name\":\"The Biggest Things We've Learned About COVID \u2014 and What We Still Don't Know - Guides\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/thepapergown.zocdoc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/kwhipple_zocdoc_corona_final_a.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-18T16:10:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-03-21T19:41:14+00:00\",\"description\":\"Tis the season for recapping the year.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thepapergown.zocdoc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/kwhipple_zocdoc_corona_final_a.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/thepapergown.zocdoc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/kwhipple_zocdoc_corona_final_a.png\",\"width\":968,\"height\":452,\"caption\":\"Kevin Whipple\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Guides\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/category\/guides\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"The Biggest Things We’ve Learned About COVID \u2014 and What We Still Don’t Know\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paper Gown\",\"description\":\"Stories for and about patients\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Zocdoc\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thepapergown.zocdoc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/ZD-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/thepapergown.zocdoc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/ZD-logo.png\",\"width\":2059,\"height\":1049,\"caption\":\"Zocdoc\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e3d61a84901346618dfdb4ecc49d94d8\",\"name\":\"Matt Schneiderman\",\"description\":\"Matt is a freelance writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/author\/matt-schneiderman\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Biggest Things We've Learned About COVID \u2014 and What We Still Don't Know - Guides","description":"Tis the season for recapping the year.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Biggest Things We've Learned About COVID \u2014 and What We Still Don't Know - Guides","og_description":"Tis the season for recapping the year.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know\/","og_site_name":"The Paper Gown","article_published_time":"2020-12-18T16:10:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-03-21T19:41:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":968,"height":452,"url":"https:\/\/thepapergown.zocdoc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/kwhipple_zocdoc_corona_final_a.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Matt Schneiderman","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Matt Schneiderman","Est. reading time":"14 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know\/"},"author":{"name":"Matt Schneiderman","@id":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e3d61a84901346618dfdb4ecc49d94d8"},"headline":"The Biggest Things We’ve Learned About COVID \u2014 and What We Still Don’t Know","datePublished":"2020-12-18T16:10:28+00:00","dateModified":"2023-03-21T19:41:14+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know\/"},"wordCount":3284,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/thepapergown.zocdoc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/kwhipple_zocdoc_corona_final_a.png","keywords":["COVID-19"],"articleSection":["Guides"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know\/","url":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know\/","name":"The Biggest Things We've Learned About COVID \u2014 and What We Still Don't Know - Guides","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/thepapergown.zocdoc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/kwhipple_zocdoc_corona_final_a.png","datePublished":"2020-12-18T16:10:28+00:00","dateModified":"2023-03-21T19:41:14+00:00","description":"Tis the season for recapping the year.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/thepapergown.zocdoc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/kwhipple_zocdoc_corona_final_a.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/thepapergown.zocdoc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/kwhipple_zocdoc_corona_final_a.png","width":968,"height":452,"caption":"Kevin Whipple"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/the-biggest-things-weve-learned-about-covid-and-what-we-still-dont-know\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Guides","item":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/category\/guides\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The Biggest Things We’ve Learned About COVID \u2014 and What We Still Don’t Know"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/","name":"The Paper Gown","description":"Stories for and about patients","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Zocdoc","url":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/thepapergown.zocdoc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/ZD-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/thepapergown.zocdoc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/ZD-logo.png","width":2059,"height":1049,"caption":"Zocdoc"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e3d61a84901346618dfdb4ecc49d94d8","name":"Matt Schneiderman","description":"Matt is a freelance writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area.","url":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/author\/matt-schneiderman\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}