Thread by @tmprowell

🧵 Your risk of dying if you get #Omicron in the next few wks as opposed to a few months from now will be dramatically different. We are facing huge surges in Jan that will make it hard to get seen in an ER in a timely fashion & even harder to get admitted to a hospital.

2/ Should you be fortunate enough to find a bed, you will have drs & nurses overwhelmed with patient volume, who will have very limited time to spend w/ you. Dr to patient (& nurse to patient) ratios will be unsafe, like unthinkable in pre-#pandemic times. #Omicron #MedTwitter

3/ This alone will dramatically increase your odds of death. That’s been seen in the prior surges. With #Omicron, the # falling ill at once is 🚀 off the charts. I’m seeing attack rates of 75-100% even in fully #vaccinated (& some #boosted) gatherings & households. #MedTwitter

4/ Multiple states & cities are already breaking records daily, & that is BEFORE holiday travel/gatherings. It’s also a huge underestimate of #’s given that many people are finding out they’re positive on home tests, which aren’t counted in tallies you see in news/on TV. #Omicron

5/ There is a monoclonal antibody that is still effective vs #Omicron, as well as a just-authorized pill for outpatients who test positive for #COVID19. Both will dramatically decrease risk of hospitalization & death, but not for you. Prob not for me either. Why do I say that?

6/ It’s just basic math. There’s not enough of either for everybody who needs it. There’s not even enough for a SMALL fraction of the people who will need it. The odds that any one of us will get it are super, super low. Many places have none. #Omicron

google.com/amp/s/www.nyti…

7/ We don’t even have enough supply to cover a *fraction* of the # of #Omicron cases diagnosed today alone. And it requires a positive test (hard to find one), & a prescription, & all of that quickly because must start the med within 5d of symptom onset. google.com/amp/s/www.nyti…

8/ This 🧵 isn’t meant to scare or discourage you, it’s meant to help you make good decisions. Test supply will ⬆️, supply of highly effective treatments for #Omicron will ⬆️, & not far off. But if you get sick this wk, that doesn’t help you. BE VERY CAREFUL NOW. 🙏 💉 + 😷 /End

P.S. In case you or a loved one are infected with #Omicron now, or get infected sometime soon (which will be many of us given how contagious this #CovidVariant is. #OmicronIsAirborne, so it basically spreads like smoke), please don’t freak out.

The risk of severe illness for a given individual *appears* to be lower with #Omicron than with #DeltaVariant & some other #CovidVariants. That is def good news. The problem here is sheer volume of cases & timing (ie, a 🌊, all at once).

If you are #vaccinated & esp if also #boosted, your odds of dying of #Omicron are very low. Buy a pulse oximeter online, monitor your O2 levels, spend as much time as you can face down when resting to maintain O2 levels better. Stay hydrated. Move around to avoid blood clots.

And while that is generic info for all that we give people who have #COVID19, please reach out to your own dr. If you are at increased risk, your dr will do everything possible to help you access effective treatment that can keep you out of the hospital. If sick, DO GO TO ER.

None of this should be construed as medical advice but rather common knowledge that every single person should have in a #pandemic, because there are not enough health care workers to meet this moment. Stay safe, Twitter fam. We’ll get through this. 👊 #Omicron