My friend is a hospital doctor working on the frontlines at a NYC hospital battling coronavirus. He’s terrified what we’re doing is falling tragically short of what’s needed to protect us from this highly contagious deadly virus. What he’s most worried about at his hospital: 1/
Last week the CDC downgraded their guidelines to allow health care workers attending to COVID-19 patients to merely use general surgical masks when more protective N95 respirators aren’t available.
google.com/amp/s/www.merc…
google.com/amp/s/www.merc…
In the US health workers are being asked to work with the everyday masks you see on Grey’s Anatomy. Compare the protection our health workers are being given to what’s been used in China:
More protection is needed b/c studies are finding you don’t need to be directly coughed on to get the virus - it can linger in air for up to 3 hours. Medical settings (contained spaces) are the most susceptible to this kind of transmission.
thehill.com/policy/healthc…
thehill.com/policy/healthc…
To know what we DO need to protect ppl, all we have to do is look at the photos: These doctors in China are wearing full body protective suits with face shield/n95 respirators or PAPR (Ebola level). This is what our health care workers need.
We need negative pressure tent pods that pull airborne disease particles out of the air as a separate triage for ONLY COVID-19/respiratory illnesses cases to protect the main ER staff and patients from possible infection.
We need to use empty buildings/colleges/cruise ships and create hermetic quarantines for COVID-19 patients - and house for much longer than 2 weeks. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
I am tweeting this because my friend has spent the last 3 weeks doing everything he can to fight for more serious protections that will keep health care workers & patients safe - but we're still falling way short, so I'm trying to help get the word out. /end
