Friday, March 20, 2020
COVID-19
Dr. Cornelia Griggs: A New York Doctor’s Coronavirus Warning: The Sky Is Falling
"...Making my rounds at the children’s hospital earlier this week, I saw that the boxes of gloves and other personal protective equipment were dwindling. This is a crisis for our vulnerable patients and health care workers alike. Protective equipment is only one of the places where supplies are falling short. At our large, 4,000-bed New York City hospital, we have 500 ventilators and 250 on backup reserve. If we are on track to match the scale of Covid-19 infections in Italy, then we are likely to run out of ventilators in New York. The anti-viral “treatments” we have for Covid-19 are experimental and many of them are hard to even get approved. Let me repeat. The sky is falling. I say this not to panic anyone but to mobilize you. We need more equipment and we need it now. Specifically gloves, masks, eye protection and more ventilators. We need our technology friends to be making and testing prototypes to rig the ventilators that we do have to support more than one patient at a time. We need our labs channeling all of their efforts into combating this bug — that means vaccine research and antiviral treatment research, quickly. We need hospitals to figure out how to nimbly and flexibly modify our existing practices to adapt to this virus and do it fast. Doctors across the globe are sharing information, protocols and strategies through social media, because our common publishing channels are too slow. Physician and surgeon mothers are coming together on Facebook groups to publish advice to parents and the public, to amplify our outrage, and to underscore the fear we feel for our most vulnerable patient populations, as well as ourselves and our families. Please flatten the curve and stay at home, but please do not go into couch mode. Like everyone, I have moments where imagining the worst possible Covid-19 scenario steals my breath. But cowering in the dark places of our minds doesn’t help. Rather than private panic, we need public-spirited action. Those of us walking into the rooms of Covid-19-positive patients every day need you and your minds, your networks, your creative solutions, and your voices to be fighting for us. We might be the exhausted masked face trying to resuscitate you when you show up on the doorstep of our hospital. And when you do, I promise not to panic. I’ll use every ounce of my expertise to keep you alive. Please, do the same for us."
And to reinforce what the World Health Org said: Test, test, test, we see the data coming from Italy:
The Independent (UK) Coronavirus: Italian village reports no new infections for days after blanket testing
"A Italian village that was a coronavirus hotspot has seen no new cases for days following blanket testing on all residents, according to local media. When around 3,300 people were checked for the virus in Vo Euganeo in northern Italy, 3 per cent (around 90) were infected with Covid-19, researchers said. Most of these reportedly had no symptoms of the flu-like disease at all. “If he hadn’t have done this,” the head of the Veneto region said, “Vo Euganeo would have seen an explosion of infections.” Luca Zaia told Italian TV that the community was now “as healthy as can be”. No new positive cases have been reported in the small Italian village since last week after authorities even tested asymptomatic people, according to newspaper Il Gazzettino. The mass-testing - a trial led by the University of Padua - saw all residents checked for Covid-19 in February and then checked again shortly after. It was hailed a success by researchers, who told local media that on the second round of testing, the number of positive results dropped significantly to 0.3 per cent. “We were able to show that isolating all the positive cases allowed us to reduce the rate of infection,” Professor Andrea Crisanti said."
Dr. Cornelia Griggs: A New York Doctor’s Coronavirus Warning: The Sky Is Falling
"...Making my rounds at the children’s hospital earlier this week, I saw that the boxes of gloves and other personal protective equipment were dwindling. This is a crisis for our vulnerable patients and health care workers alike. Protective equipment is only one of the places where supplies are falling short. At our large, 4,000-bed New York City hospital, we have 500 ventilators and 250 on backup reserve. If we are on track to match the scale of Covid-19 infections in Italy, then we are likely to run out of ventilators in New York. The anti-viral “treatments” we have for Covid-19 are experimental and many of them are hard to even get approved. Let me repeat. The sky is falling. I say this not to panic anyone but to mobilize you. We need more equipment and we need it now. Specifically gloves, masks, eye protection and more ventilators. We need our technology friends to be making and testing prototypes to rig the ventilators that we do have to support more than one patient at a time. We need our labs channeling all of their efforts into combating this bug — that means vaccine research and antiviral treatment research, quickly. We need hospitals to figure out how to nimbly and flexibly modify our existing practices to adapt to this virus and do it fast. Doctors across the globe are sharing information, protocols and strategies through social media, because our common publishing channels are too slow. Physician and surgeon mothers are coming together on Facebook groups to publish advice to parents and the public, to amplify our outrage, and to underscore the fear we feel for our most vulnerable patient populations, as well as ourselves and our families. Please flatten the curve and stay at home, but please do not go into couch mode. Like everyone, I have moments where imagining the worst possible Covid-19 scenario steals my breath. But cowering in the dark places of our minds doesn’t help. Rather than private panic, we need public-spirited action. Those of us walking into the rooms of Covid-19-positive patients every day need you and your minds, your networks, your creative solutions, and your voices to be fighting for us. We might be the exhausted masked face trying to resuscitate you when you show up on the doorstep of our hospital. And when you do, I promise not to panic. I’ll use every ounce of my expertise to keep you alive. Please, do the same for us."
And to reinforce what the World Health Org said: Test, test, test, we see the data coming from Italy:
The Independent (UK) Coronavirus: Italian village reports no new infections for days after blanket testing
"A Italian village that was a coronavirus hotspot has seen no new cases for days following blanket testing on all residents, according to local media. When around 3,300 people were checked for the virus in Vo Euganeo in northern Italy, 3 per cent (around 90) were infected with Covid-19, researchers said. Most of these reportedly had no symptoms of the flu-like disease at all. “If he hadn’t have done this,” the head of the Veneto region said, “Vo Euganeo would have seen an explosion of infections.” Luca Zaia told Italian TV that the community was now “as healthy as can be”. No new positive cases have been reported in the small Italian village since last week after authorities even tested asymptomatic people, according to newspaper Il Gazzettino. The mass-testing - a trial led by the University of Padua - saw all residents checked for Covid-19 in February and then checked again shortly after. It was hailed a success by researchers, who told local media that on the second round of testing, the number of positive results dropped significantly to 0.3 per cent. “We were able to show that isolating all the positive cases allowed us to reduce the rate of infection,” Professor Andrea Crisanti said."
