Some uncomfortable truths about ageism and #COVIDー19. The average life expectancy of someone who lives to 80 is 9 years, they however are most likely to die if infected, and should they get sick enough to need ICU support their mortality pushes 80%
Consequently, they rarely are admitted to ICU. This means: 1. ICU occupancy lags hospital admission rates significantly and is an insensitive metric for healthcare capacity and strain. 2. These are preventable deaths that take significant number of quality years with them.
The bad news is that it is a statistical game. As hospital numbers increase, so will the proportion of people with favourable ICU outcomes who need our care. That’s when we start filling our beds. When those people get sick they take weeks of treatment.
And once they survive the ICU they continue to need augmented support in the hospital for an extended duration. Physiotherapy, occupational therapy, & nutritional support are all ongoing concerns. If we drop the ball there, they can bounce back to an already full ICU.
This situation is preventable. Our hospitalization numbers are a serious warning that mandatory measures are needed now. But while we wait for direction. Please do not go to work if you are sick. No more in person parties until there is a vaccine. Wear your mask around people. 🙏
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I apologize to everyone I could not individually reply to. So a brief thread about ICU capacity, as it pertains to Edmonton in the time of #COVID19.
Edmonton’s General ICU beds are spread out amongst all of its hospitals. We have two major trauma centres situated at the University Hospital and Royal Alexandra Hospital. The Sturgeon, Grey Nuns and Misericordia handle both surgical and medical disease.
The university also has the Mazinkowski which manages heart surgery and ECMO, and a neurosurgical ICU. The RAH has multiple step down units, both surgical and medical that can act provide high level care.
So here I go into turbulent waters. I do so because I have had several requests to weigh in on the matter of #Masks. I would like to qualify my statements first. I am not an infectious disease specialist. I would refer you to @AntibioticDoc for a higher level of expertise.
I do believe that non medical masks play an integral part in the mitigation and management of the spread of #COVID19. I use the word believe specifically because despite the recent proliferation of studies around masking, they are mostly of poor quality and applicability.
If you follow me you know that I despise oversimplifications. My concerns about masks from the very beginning has been the need to portray it as a solution to the pandemic, as way to get kids back in school, and people back to work. In a sense, a magic bullet.
Allow me a brief thread that will first cause you some anxiety but then reassure you. I will preface this with my credentials. I have been an intensive care physician for 15 years now. Long enough have gained a fair amount of experience in these matters.
It is inherent in our nature to look for answers. It is also natural for us to seek the easiest way to accomplish a task. I’m not an evolutionary biologist but it makes sense to me to expend the least amount of effort to survive.
We have a tendency to seek simple solutions to complex problems. A perfect example: vitamins. A multi billion 💵 industry based on only the scantest of evidence. In some clinical circumstances they are beneficial, sometimes life saving but in most cases the make expensive pee.
Both of my kids have ridden their bikes alone to school though all weather since the ages of 8, often to the chagrin of our local school. To them, it was normal.
There were times I would get phone calls from the school office asking to pick them up at the end of the day because it was cold outside. The conversation would get awkward when I would ask them what the temperature was in the morning when they rode in.