The reason that critical care providers are afraid is not because they only see the sickest patients. They always see the sickest patients. In fact they are incredibly calm and competent professionals despite the fact that up to half of their patients are going to die under their care. That’s their job.
The reason they are afraid now is:
The exponentially rising numbers of patients who need critical care.
The lack of protective gear.
The shortage of other resources such as ventilators.
These people are very close to very sick patients and their bodily fluids all day. They perform the life-saving intubations which aerosolize the virus, and they lack the proper gear to protect themselves. They know that they are going to lose colleagues to this virus, that they may be exposing their families, and that they themselves are in danger.
They also are already facing a kind of triage which condemns some people who might have otherwise lived to death due to lack of resources.
To me, the quote above implies that healthcare workers are panicking and searching for Xanax because they don’t understand that most cases of Covid-19 are not life-threatening. I wanted to point out that HCW have factual reasons to be afraid. Wouldn’t you be afraid if you had to get close enough to a coughing Covid-19 positive patient to see down their throat to their vocal chords, and you didn’t have proper PPE? Or if you needed to clean patients after they vomited or had diarrhea, but you were running out of gloves? Despite this, and the fact that very hard decisions about scarce resources are coming, I don’t see HCW panicking. The ones I know are supporting each other, doing their jobs, and hoping that people understand the importance of flattening the curve.
I can’t parse out what is a headline and what is not, but we actually don’t know if that drug combo actually “saves lives” or not. For one, we do not know what long-term side effects there are. For another, trials have to be done on a large enough group to study if effects are statistically significant (giving a drug combo to a small number of folks and then some of those folks recovering does not prove that). All sorts of experimental drug trials are going on right now, and we will eventually have drugs proven to save lives. Nothing, now, however, is proven.
He shared the quite detailed email with us., His particular medical school has enough wiggle room built into the clinical/ hospital third and fourth year rotations to provide time to make up rotations later. Also this classroom substitution will be given for credit, and they reassured the students that it will not affect their graduation or applications for residency programs.
The email also reminded everyone that every single medical student in the country is in the same situation. They are not alone in having to make adjustments to the curriculum.
Oh come on. Can we just be honest with all of this and be real.
We all know if you drill down to the bottom, what the is really the truth around media coverage and selective hearing, selective quotes, hours of information boiled down to sound bites. It’s the same here. We are all subject to confirmation bias.
Me, as much as anyone. But to say it’s not happening in the media or on this thread is intellectually dishonest.
And I’m sorry here’s a new one.
replacing the “ Dr Fauci is being fired and fighting with the president” media firestorm. Which is false. We now have the potential loosening of the lockdown by Easter, target narratives.
If one listened to the press conference or follow up. It’s a target and will be adjusted based on the data. It’s also not going to apply to hotspots, even if everything is perfect. It may be regions and sections. Its also probably will not happen.
However, people in lockdown they have to see some relief potentially. They will not accept indefinitely.
The administration has to protect the health of the country as much as they can, the health of the economy as much as they can, civil unrest and a myriad of other pressing matters.
It’s easy for us to all judge.
As Rahm Emmanuel stated, don’t miss the opportunity to take advantage of a crisis.
I don’t think many people are missing this opportunity from an ideological perspective.
I just wish it hadn’t come so strongly to College Confidential.
That is just a part of the actual quote which was:
“And I think it’s going to be very exciting. I think it could be a game changer. And maybe not. Maybe not, but I think it could be, based on what I see, it could be a game changer. Very powerful, they’re very powerful”
Other statements include:
“Look, it may work and it may not work. And I agree with the doctor, what he said: It may work, it may not work. I feel good about it. That’s all it is. Just a feeling. You know, I’m a smart guy. I feel good about it. And we’re going to see. You’re going to see soon enough.”
There’s always a hype-disclaimer pattern in whatever he says. It’s just a sales technique to elicit trust in the hype part. “This is worth ten times what I’m asking for, but look, maybe not, I don’t want to pressure you, take your time.”
Not only that, but he tweeted: HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE & AZITHROMYCIN, taken together, have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine. The FDA has moved mountains - Thank You! Hopefully they will BOTH (H works better with A, International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents)…be put in use IMMEDIATELY. PEOPLE ARE DYING, MOVE FAST, and GOD BLESS EVERYONE!
I don’t see much difference between what Trump said and what the headline said. If anything, the headline didn’t say make it as strong as Trump did.
He started out with the good news “very exciting”, then follow up with “game changer”, then put a couple of disclaimer in case he is wrong “may be not”. Then re-emphasize this original intend with multiple phases, made it seems like his very own personal experience “based on what I see”, and then “game changer” for the second time. Finish with “VERY Powerful”, twice!
Take Trump’s name out, do you still blame the media? or the person who said it? Talking about bias!
“And I think it’s going to be very exciting. I think it could be a game changer. And maybe not. Maybe not, but I think it could be, based on what I see, it could be a game changer. Very powerful, they’re very powerful”
From what I can see here - Spain seems to have leveled off in new cases. We are still waiting for today’s Italy numbers. The US will pass Italy in new cases within the next day or 2.