I write on Saturday morning March 28, and right now there are two contrary strains about to collide. On the one hand, you have scientists reducing their death-rate predictions further and further, lopping off zeros by the day. On the other hand, this is accompanied by appalling levels of despotism, even to the point of National Guard checkpoints at state borders and restrictions on what you can buy even at “essential” stores. This gigantic gap between emerging professional medical consensus and appalling policy ignorance is revealing as never before the practical impossibility of scientific public policy.-Wes
Then you have the cascade of unintentional and unexpected outcomes of the rush to coerce. It began with Trump’s disastrous block on flights from Europe that sent millions scrambling for tickets and led to an unspeakable crush of people standing shoulder-to-shoulder at our nations’ airports, contradicting the demand that people social distance just when the virus was revealing itself as highly contagious. The very opposite of intended results!
That’s just the beginning. I doubt seriously that the political class in this country, as low a regard I have it, set out to destroy all that we call civilized life, instantly generating millions of unemployed workers and bankrupt businesses all around, not to mention a pandemic of utter hopelessness on the part of vast swaths of the world’s population. Still, this is what they have managed to achieve. This is what their pretense of knowledge – as opposed to actual wisdom – has unleashed on the world, with incalculable human cost.
As for economics, are we talking recession? Depression? Those words indicate cyclical changes in business conditions. My friend Gene Epstein suggests another term for what we are going through. The Great Suppression. There will be months, years, and decades in which to more clearly observe the countless ways in which the supressors piled error upon error, blockage upon blockage, to add to the grotesquery.
What truly should inspire us all right now are the grocers, pharmacists, truck drivers, manufacturers, doctors and nurses, construction workers, restaurant workers, service station attendants, webmasters, volunteers of all sorts, philanthropists, and specialists in a huge variety of essential professions who keep life functioning more or less. And let us not forget the “unessential” people (it’s an incorrect and vicious term) who have innovated ways around the Great Suppression to continue to serve others, keep the rent being paid, and food on their tables. They are the means of salvation out of this mess.
The market, hobbled and bludgeoned, still loves you.
As for the politicians, Andrew Cuomo has admitted some of the error. In a much-welcome change, he has even deregulated medical services. There’s just a hint of humility and humanity embedded in these statements and actions. We need more of that, vastly more, if only to contribute to calming things down long enough to gain some perspective, and, hopefully, some eventual realization that in the “land of the free and the home of the brave” a virus should be regarded as a disease to mitigate and cure, not an excuse to bludgeon life on earth as we know it.
Monday, March 30, 2020
The Great Suppression
Interesting opinion piece from the American Institute for Economic Research appeared online framing the "Great Suppression:"
Saturday, March 28, 2020
Adjusting to Our "New Normal"
It's hard to image what life was like a month ago since so much has changed. The world seems surreal right now: little to no traffic, the hustle and bustle of our cities gone, and the quiet. So much quiet.
Life has changed significantly in our home, as I attempt to strip at my backdoor after returning from work, wash my hands, wipe my keys, phone, and wallet down, then head up stairs for a shower and change of clothes before familial reentry. I sleep in a different bedroom, shower in a different bathroom, and wonder (like a worker after the Chernobyl accident) what my viral "load" is at any point in time. Every accidentally-aspirated chicken noodle soup noodle and results in a coughing spree clears a room. I scratch my nose: "do I need to wash my hands again?"
Life as a physician is really weird now. We are healers and potential vectors all at the same time.
Yet so far we are lucky. Italy announced 969 deaths in a single day yesterday. Many, if not all of them, died alone. The ripple effect on their families must be enormous. And the poor doctors, nurses, health care workers there. New York is starting to feel this too. Will it get this bad here?
Our hospital system has been very proactive and open about the situation with us. They acknowledge the worldwide shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE). They are conserving necessary supplies for those most likely to confront new patients or those with suspected or confirmed COVID-19. All OR's and emergency procedures require full PPE, which is awkward when a non-COVID-19 patient enters: where is the transition to full PPE made? In the holding area? The lab itself? It's all a work in progress. Ventilators? Enough now, but later? Sands shift.
Still, it's impressive to see an ambulance bay converted to a negative flow screening area. Separate hospital's ICU and inpatient ward adapted for designated for COVID-19 patients. Contignecy plans for overflow are already in place. Outpatient drive-thru testing established for people who are most likely to warrant testing and have taken an online screening questionnaire. Six-foot markers are on the floor in the cafeteria, meetings, if they occur at all, are via Zoom or teleconference. Nearly all patient visits are virtual. Elective cases are a thing of the past. 425 physician volunteers are on standby - for extra duty - sometime.
At first, then percentage of people tested with positive coronavirus tests in 24 hrs was 15.8%, then 17.2%, and this AM was 19.1%. 7% of those hospitalized. Lots and lots of testing, planning, wondering, waiting. Today we admitted more people in a single day than everyone that was admitted when we started monitoring a week ago. It's coming.
The preparation seems so logical, but I wonder: will we be overwhelmed? We really don't know. But the non-COVID patients are still out there too: the LVAD patients with ICD shocks, the kids with broken bones, the baby deliveries, heart attacks, cancer patients, and patients with complete heart block, and more. They haven't stopped coming but they, too, are scared.
It's reassuring to see so many good folks giving it their all: from the doctors, nurses, administrative staff, clerical workers, laboratory staff, environmental workers, engineers and transporters. We work together - we have to - and with that effort comes the rekindling of respect for the special skills of everyone.
Once relatively simple things to treat take much more strategic coordination now. Atrial flutter w/rapid rate in a patient with fever and cough just a month ago would get a TEE/cardioversion without a moment's hesitation. Now, that patient is COVID-tested, isolated, procedures performed in full personal protective equipment, and tensions between colleagues heightened. The truth is, the vast majority of us that contract the disease will recover, but no one wants to be that other statistic. Patients need us. Families need us. So we wear a mask, we wash our hands, we wipe our tools, keys, keyboards, phones, then strip, wash and reenter. Are we effective? Honestly, I have no idea, but what else can we do?
Thanks to everyone who have sent prayers, words of encouragement, and support by staying home. We will all get thorough this.
Take care out there and take comfort in the fact that you're not alone.
-Wes
Life has changed significantly in our home, as I attempt to strip at my backdoor after returning from work, wash my hands, wipe my keys, phone, and wallet down, then head up stairs for a shower and change of clothes before familial reentry. I sleep in a different bedroom, shower in a different bathroom, and wonder (like a worker after the Chernobyl accident) what my viral "load" is at any point in time. Every accidentally-aspirated chicken noodle soup noodle and results in a coughing spree clears a room. I scratch my nose: "do I need to wash my hands again?"
Life as a physician is really weird now. We are healers and potential vectors all at the same time.
Yet so far we are lucky. Italy announced 969 deaths in a single day yesterday. Many, if not all of them, died alone. The ripple effect on their families must be enormous. And the poor doctors, nurses, health care workers there. New York is starting to feel this too. Will it get this bad here?
Our hospital system has been very proactive and open about the situation with us. They acknowledge the worldwide shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE). They are conserving necessary supplies for those most likely to confront new patients or those with suspected or confirmed COVID-19. All OR's and emergency procedures require full PPE, which is awkward when a non-COVID-19 patient enters: where is the transition to full PPE made? In the holding area? The lab itself? It's all a work in progress. Ventilators? Enough now, but later? Sands shift.
Still, it's impressive to see an ambulance bay converted to a negative flow screening area. Separate hospital's ICU and inpatient ward adapted for designated for COVID-19 patients. Contignecy plans for overflow are already in place. Outpatient drive-thru testing established for people who are most likely to warrant testing and have taken an online screening questionnaire. Six-foot markers are on the floor in the cafeteria, meetings, if they occur at all, are via Zoom or teleconference. Nearly all patient visits are virtual. Elective cases are a thing of the past. 425 physician volunteers are on standby - for extra duty - sometime.
At first, then percentage of people tested with positive coronavirus tests in 24 hrs was 15.8%, then 17.2%, and this AM was 19.1%. 7% of those hospitalized. Lots and lots of testing, planning, wondering, waiting. Today we admitted more people in a single day than everyone that was admitted when we started monitoring a week ago. It's coming.
The preparation seems so logical, but I wonder: will we be overwhelmed? We really don't know. But the non-COVID patients are still out there too: the LVAD patients with ICD shocks, the kids with broken bones, the baby deliveries, heart attacks, cancer patients, and patients with complete heart block, and more. They haven't stopped coming but they, too, are scared.
It's reassuring to see so many good folks giving it their all: from the doctors, nurses, administrative staff, clerical workers, laboratory staff, environmental workers, engineers and transporters. We work together - we have to - and with that effort comes the rekindling of respect for the special skills of everyone.
Once relatively simple things to treat take much more strategic coordination now. Atrial flutter w/rapid rate in a patient with fever and cough just a month ago would get a TEE/cardioversion without a moment's hesitation. Now, that patient is COVID-tested, isolated, procedures performed in full personal protective equipment, and tensions between colleagues heightened. The truth is, the vast majority of us that contract the disease will recover, but no one wants to be that other statistic. Patients need us. Families need us. So we wear a mask, we wash our hands, we wipe our tools, keys, keyboards, phones, then strip, wash and reenter. Are we effective? Honestly, I have no idea, but what else can we do?
Thanks to everyone who have sent prayers, words of encouragement, and support by staying home. We will all get thorough this.
Take care out there and take comfort in the fact that you're not alone.
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
The "Risk and Distraction" of MOC
We did not come to this decision lightly, but we believe removing the potential risk and distraction of sitting for a spring exam is the right thing to do for our diplomates and for the country at this time. Learn more: https://www.abim.org/media-center/Coronavirus-Updates.aspxPhysicians can help make sure this risky, unproven, and "distracting" ABMS board "maintenance of certification" (MOC) requirement never returns by supporting the plaintiffs working to end this monopolized program here.
-Wes