1: Now, what do you really want Congress to do and focus and prioritize
in order to help young people get the attention and help they need before those
11 years average, it takes to get mental health assistance.
2: Like you can't, uh, necessarily legislate your way out of Sigma.
That's a cultural change. We all have to play a role in,
but where Congress can make a big difference, uh,
is in focusing on expanding access to treatment, uh,
making sure that we are integrating primary care with mental health services,
that we're expanding our pipeline for health mental health professionals.
And did we're doing that in a diverse way,
cuz right now only 2% of the 41,000 psychiatrists in our country
are black, for example,
which is just a reflection of the lack of diversity we have in our mental health
workforce. And that has direct implications for providing care. But lastly,
you know, Concourse can play a role in investing on the prevention side as well.
We actually know from the data that people who are struggling with mental
illness and you know,
who are people of color are often less likely to go and seek out help, uh,
even if that help is available to them. So that Sigma really matters.
We've gotta recognize that to close the equity gap. We also have to measure,
uh, you know, how we're doing, we've gotta track, you know,
whether people have equitable access right now and if they don't and they don't
right now, uh, how do we make sure that we are holding ourselves accountable,
uh, to make sure we're making progress? Well.
1: Let's stick with that threat of equity and talk a little bit about mask.
I know you were speaking before the committee about the eventual rollback of
mass mandates and you know, light at the end of the tunnel, but you know,
why now.
2: The general sort of a view of this I think is as a pandemic gets better,
we should be pulling back on restrictions.
The conversation now is about what should determine when that happens.
And it's likely gonna be some combination, uh,
of the hospitalization rate or hospital could capacity itself,
which is about healthcare staffing about the death rate.
And also just about where we're going in terms of cases,
are we on the rise or are we on the decline? Um, this is actually the,
the evaluation the CDC is doing right now. Can you.
1: See if a near future where Americans won't have to wear mask?
Are we talking this summer or the end of 22, 22?
2: I can imagine that future. Um,
I can tell you if it's coming in a couple months or in six months or in 12
months, I can't tell you exactly.
But what I can tell you is that to live that future,
we are gonna need the tools that we've been building over the last year.
We're gonna need readily available vaccines and therapeutics and we're well on
the way to having the supply of therapeutics, we need,
we're gonna those freely available high quality masks and tests. Uh,
and we're gonna also need the,
the right mindset recognizing that COVID is not gonna disappear overnight.
We may see waves of old or new variants, but if we have these tools,
if we're using them well, particularly our vaccines and boosters,
we can protect the vast,
vast majority of people from hospitalizations and debts.