I understand where you’re coming from and how you feel. There is so much misinformation, and much of it seems as though it is for political gain only. It’s extremely frustrating to hear stuff coming out of both sides of the isle that are not accurate. If you’re getting your information from evening news shows on MSNBC, Fox News or CNN, it’s most likely opinion and highly inaccurate.
Hopefully, when this is all said and done, you still don’t know anyone impacted by this virus. I’m not a good comparison for you or the general public because of the nature of my job. I know far too many families that have lost, or nearly lost loved ones across the country. However, here is one of the great stories out of western Nebraska from a family I know:
https://www.westernnebraskaobserver.net/story/2020/04/30/news/kimballs-john-aguiniga-beats-covid-19/6285.html
I work in the greater medical community, doing quality and safety consulting for 37 hospitals and 746 clinics. Our company is currently contracted to work with 2,876 hospitals (roughly 70% of all hospitals in the nation) of the facilities in the country, and over 23,000 clinics (roughly 73% of all clinics). I only know of one of the hundreds of doctors I partner with that agree with Dr. Atlas.
We’re working day in and day out, 7 days a week to help these hospitals, university researchers and the CDC by analyzing quality indicator data sets and other indicators of critical aspects of care. I’m not on the front lines, but I know so many that are, including my wife and 9 of her family members. The data and recommendations coming from the CDC are accurate, albeit some of their recommendations are conservative. The prediction models are becoming more and more accurate every week. Unfortunately, with any novel virus, there is going to be a learning curve.
If we open up, and everyone adheres to social distancing guidelines, we’ll continue to see the same flattened curve that will keep our medical surgical beds from being used as ICU beds (as that’s what is happening now in most major cities. There may be open medical surgical beds, but the ICU acute level rooms are over capacity in 28 of the 37 facilities I work with). If people ignore the guidelines, we’ll see a lot more people die. It’s that simple. Currently, there are many people who refuse to follow the recommendations and continue to believe they know more than subject matter experts. Because of that, my money is on it taking 18-36 months before social distancing recommendations are relaxed.
36 months?! Really? This week, we heard from infectious disease doctors that they estimate it will take 36 months for us to have enough herd immunity through natural infection or vaccination to get back to “normal”. I can promise you they won’t have vaccines for everyone in 12 months like some media outlets are publishing. Let’s hope I’m wrong.
One thing is for certain, I know far more about this situation that I do about football. Never believe a damn thing I say about football.
A good friend of mine, and Chief Medical Officer at a facility I used to work with used to tell his patients that were unsure about procedure recommendations or when talking patients out of I’ll advised surgery requests “Have faith in businessmen when they make recommendations on how to run a business that doesn’t compete with them or their money. Trust stock brokers for trading stocks when their commission is based on your success. Have faith in clinicians to guide you in your healthcare needs, but always seek another opinion if they don’t listen to you . But, never, ever trust a politician... especially in an election year.” Them the rules!
Stay safe and healthy gentleman! I’ve got reports to review, and mama is going to be pissed if I’m working again Sunday since she has the day off. Be back in a few weeks to provide more bad football takes.
