My friend who is a doctor at Madigan (Army medical Center in Washington) Has been posting tons bemoaning the lack of proper PPE. He's also posted a few videos/links.. Sorry if any of these have already been posted. Quoted items are his captions.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-lost-month-how-a-failure-to-test-blinded-the-us-to-covid-19/ar-BB11Qo84?fbclid=IwAR2ALmkwL8rVBWF0Gd80dYwIZATXAzdLgatr0NQNFz15ZpW7ZN4yYzkVAv8
https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/03/we-are-not-expendable-we-are-not-replaceable.html?fbclid=IwAR0veFfYhaxA0zegfzocm0aFuqFZE0G81B_G1gtRBsC5n-xZLydwSa0doYI
Quote:
To my medical friends.
I've been saying this all along (sorry to my co-workers who hear this daily) - although this virus is mostly spread via droplet/contact, it has clear airborne tendencies and we must have higher levels of protection as equipment/resources become available.
Many of the countries that use airborne precautions have greatly decreased their healthcare workers illnesses. This also yields better patient outcomes and decreases nosocomial infections in the hospitals. Those facilities that don't abide by these precautions suffer great healthcare worker disruption (we get sicker and are quarantined often) - a la China early on, Italy and NYC right now. Look deeply at your hospitals - it is all too often that 1-2 initial Covid patients causes many more fold of healthcare workers to become exposed because we aren't taking the correct precautions. Unfortunately, our country downgraded precautions in early March likely due to our inadequate protective equipment (my educated opinion). Please keep abreast of the evolving body of research that shows that Covid-19 is small, can be carried on micro-droplets, can be aerosolized, and can be airborne for many hours. Knowing this will encourage you to be more mindful in various places of your hospital were the concentration of Covid patients are high.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-lost-month-how-a-failure-to-test-blinded-the-us-to-covid-19/ar-BB11Qo84?fbclid=IwAR2ALmkwL8rVBWF0Gd80dYwIZATXAzdLgatr0NQNFz15ZpW7ZN4yYzkVAv8
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I think this is a great interview for the non-medical people to listen to. It is a short talk followed by Q&A from a Critical Care Physician in NYC.
My take-away points from his talk are:
1. Know that Covid-19 is in your community. This should not scare you, but remind you to take control and be safe.
2. Become a "hand nazi". Keep your hands clean all of the time and use Purell before and after you touch any high traffic item in public if you must use your hand. Surprisingly, your elbow and butt can open doors (I added that part).
3. Be more psychologically aware of not touching your face. The general public should be encouraged to wear simple surgical masks in public (more so as a reminder to avoid touching their face).
4. As noted above, he recommends the general public to use surgical masks in public (at least during the peak of this crisis) for droplet mitigation but to also prevent touching your face. The general public has no use for wearing N95 masks (unless you are immunocompromised). Save the N95 masks for the healthcare workers.
5. Keep your 6+ feet of social distancing.
6. Shrink your social circle now.
7. If you have a sick family member at home, keep them in a separate room and separate bathroom if possible. If they must interact with the family, they must wear a mask. Wipe down anything they touch/contact.
8. As sick people feel better (fever stops), continue precautions for another week. Have them wear a mask as they increase their social interaction/return to work during this time.
9. Treat all cold and flu-like symptoms as a possible Covid-19 until you are certain what it is.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/were-failing-doctors/608662/?utm_source=feed&fbclid=IwAR0eKUufKlQq9F4ygXBmLAIGiS2kHWQIk7WNBgz7uwAGaIx6Z6xdFnbXBNkQuote:
It is essential that those on the frontlines are properly protected. Doctors, nurses, paramedics and techs are not easily replaced.
https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/03/we-are-not-expendable-we-are-not-replaceable.html?fbclid=IwAR0veFfYhaxA0zegfzocm0aFuqFZE0G81B_G1gtRBsC5n-xZLydwSa0doYI