‘Makes you ask why the hell we even bother.’ Infectious disease experts face disillusionment as COVID-19 pandemic worsens
Michael Mina could have pursued a career as a potter. Or remained a Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka. Instead, he opted to become an epidemiologist, a profession that now has his head hitting the pillow around 4 a.m. each day for five hours of sleep. He spends the bulk of his time in his office — or rather, the coffee table jury-rigged into a standing desk in his Jamaica Plain apartment — searching for ways to ease the pandemic’s devastation and fielding a barrage of media requests.

But each week, amidst the thousands of e-mails he receives and the thousands of patients filling ICU beds across the country, it is not the exhaustion that weighs most heavily on Mina. It’s the dejection.

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Graphics: COVID-19 is bad now. According to many projections, it’s going to get worse
 
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