06-26-2020, 10:52 AM
CFR has been a red herring since it was determined that SARS-CoV-2 was not as deadly as the original SARS virus. However, when the extremely infectious nature of SARS-CoV-2 was determined, I'm pretty sure that outweighed any "low mortality" statement now and forever. Our almost-just-in-time healthcare system isn't really ready to sustain the fight against this virus without some public policy or public health aid.
Hospitalizations vs. hospital beds (and ICU beds) available should be the primary metric of this pandemic right now. PPE supplies per hospital should be another. Staffing availability should be another. The more we burden the healthcare system, the more deaths we risk from non-covid patients and exposure of frontline healthcare staff to covid.
Let me rephrase: if we do not control this disease from the public policy side, we are directly playing Russian roulette with frontline healthcare staff. We are literally putting a covid gun to the heads of these staff, spinning the chamber, and pulling the trigger if we don't work to reduce the number of patients coming in through hospital doors.
Masks and distancing could have been a good-enough solution a few weeks ago, but the politicization of masks and the weak enforcement of public health directives by politicians of certain political alignments allowed citizens to flout common sense and spark another wave of illness. Not coincidentally, many of these citizens were led to believe, by the same political alignments, that masks and distancing were an infringement on their personhood and autonomy.
Saddle up. It's gonna be a long ride. (The Black Plague ran around Europe in infrequent waves from the mid-1300s til the early 1800s, so hey, at least it's not that bad. We should have a vaccine way before 450 years from now.)
Hospitalizations vs. hospital beds (and ICU beds) available should be the primary metric of this pandemic right now. PPE supplies per hospital should be another. Staffing availability should be another. The more we burden the healthcare system, the more deaths we risk from non-covid patients and exposure of frontline healthcare staff to covid.
Let me rephrase: if we do not control this disease from the public policy side, we are directly playing Russian roulette with frontline healthcare staff. We are literally putting a covid gun to the heads of these staff, spinning the chamber, and pulling the trigger if we don't work to reduce the number of patients coming in through hospital doors.
Masks and distancing could have been a good-enough solution a few weeks ago, but the politicization of masks and the weak enforcement of public health directives by politicians of certain political alignments allowed citizens to flout common sense and spark another wave of illness. Not coincidentally, many of these citizens were led to believe, by the same political alignments, that masks and distancing were an infringement on their personhood and autonomy.
Saddle up. It's gonna be a long ride. (The Black Plague ran around Europe in infrequent waves from the mid-1300s til the early 1800s, so hey, at least it's not that bad. We should have a vaccine way before 450 years from now.)