Being blunt: No one is coming to save you. To save any of us. Timely tests are all but impossible to get.I’m personally driving home rapid tests I bought online wks ago to people. The effective therapeutics we now have are in VERY short supply. #Omicron
You’re are gambling with your life WHEN (not if) #Omicron finds you, or you have any other need to access medical care. In the absence of #leadership, we are it. You are it. Do the right things. #StayHome if you can. This is like a 🚀. Many people are going to get sick QUICKLY.
It will peak in all likelihood within a matter of weeks then fall. Your job is to stay safe & keep your family safe. Go to vaccines.gov to find a #vaccine or #booster vs #Omicron, then ride it out at home if you can. Boosters will protect you a lot in 7-14 days.
If you don’t already have a good mask, go to non-profit @projectn95 & order now, as soon as you finish reading this. I’m sorry you are sick of this. Even more sorry if you’re scared. I share your feelings. Do what we know works. #VaccinesWork#WearAMask works. #StayHome works.
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Important to return to policy decisions & their #publichealth impact. @mayorbowser lifted the #maskmandate for DC on 11/22/21, despite many incl me (see below) begging her not to. It was restored 4w later on 12/21/21. Too late. Cases of #COVID19 in DC 🚀 3300% since Thanksgiving.
I truly hate being right about this. We are all tired of masks, but aren’t we are all MORE tired of this #pandemic? Whether or not anyone is “willing to let” #COVID19 control their life, if they were ticketed on one of the >3K US flights canceled over Xmas wknd due to #Omicron…
If their kid is being taught by different substitute teachers every few wks in mult classes because teachers are out sick or home with their own sick or quarantined kids, if their small business goes under because #Omicron interrupts supply chains & they can’t fulfill orders…
🧵Twitter is getting pretty hot tonight. Lots of people stressed about #Omicron, & it's manifesting in fights with one another & a desire to kill the #MedTwitter messengers. So I want to share something I started doing years ago, in traffic. Maybe it'll help you. I don't know.
2/X: One day I was driving to work, & a woman cut me off in her car. Really cut me off. Weaving lane to lane, wildly between cars, causing me to swerve & almost causing a multi-vehicle accident. I'd just had my car totaled by someone who ran a red a few mos before, & I was livid.
3/X: I found myself asking what in the hell could possibly be such an emergency that she needed to drive like that. And then suddenly, I thought: maybe her childcare provider was late & she's at risk of being fired if she's late...or maybe her baby vomited on her as she left...
It's one thing what people tweet, it's another thing what they do. Our household (me a physician, my infectious diseases physician husband, & 3 kids, all #vaccinated, all elig #boosted) are back to:
👉Grocery delivery
👉Drive-thru pharmacy
👉Take-out food only
👉No airplanes
P.S. To those who say this disregards the safety of grocery store workers, pharmacy workers, restaurant workers, that is false. ALL OF THOSE WORKERS are safer if their workplace contacts are limited to a small # of core staff & not open to the general public. This benefits all.
And for context, which is important since we all come into this #pandemic with diff situations & risk tolerance, 3 wks ago:
👉 We got all groceries/prescriptions in store (😷)
👉 Husband ✈️ (N95 😷) for work
👉 Had fam Xmas trip & late Jan ✈️ friend trip planned (all cancelled)
🆘 State just set record for new daily cases
🆘 Hospitalizations ⬆️ >180% in month since #Omicron identified by WHO as a #covidvariant of concern
🆘 8.8% of unvaccinated #Maryland adults account for >75% of #COVID19 hospitalizations
2/4 Quit scrolling & listen to me. This is a big f-ing deal. If you are indoors in public without a high-quality mask, #Omicron will find you. If you are not #vaccinated, you are at high-risk to land in an overcrowded, understaffed hospital. Most Americans have no experience…
3/4 With what it means to be in a hospital where conditions are frankly unsafe, which is where we now are. I have worked in countries where there aren’t enough hospital beds & pts are on floors, where 1 dr is overseeing care of WAY too many patients. I have been that dr.
🧵 Shared from a dr friend, details changed for patient privacy: Had 3 unvaxxed women in late pregnancy hospitalized w/ #COVID19 w/ emergency early deliveries. One dead, leaving 5 kids; one transferred out of state for ECMO (my note: most advanced life support) & dying anyway…
2/ One survived but had a stroke that left her with neurological disability so she will not be able to return to her home. Instead, she’ll spend her New Years’ Eve in a brain rehab. All the babies are expected to live, but these families are 💔. Two young moms dead, one disabled.
Well, I got 2 messages before 9am from friends telling me they have #COVID19 in their households. And in the 12 mins since, I’ve just heard about 4 more. So Merry Exponential Growth #Omicron#Christmas. 🌲 😫
A quick 🧵 on what to do if that’s you since I’m typing it anyway.
1/ The first thing to say is that if someone has #COVID19 symptoms (#Omicron most common: nasal congestion/runny nose, scratchy sore throat, fever, & aches), you have to assume they have it. You may not have a test (urgent cares are still open & do) or they may still be neg.
2/ You, as the person exposed to the one with symptoms, have to assume that you both do & don’t have #Omicron too. Wait, what? 🤔
I mean: assume you could infect others now & take care to avoid exposing them, BUT don’t assume it’s too late for you to avoid getting it.