Coronavirus thread

[JHC]

Nothing new under the sun.

"There were fights over how much of the economy to shutter. “We should close all stores and all places of business except food stores and drug stores,” City Physician W.C. Goenne told the Daily Times of Davenport, Iowa. “If such a quarantine were placed on the city for a week I believe we could stop the epidemic. I do not believe in partial quarantine, however.”

"But Charles Grilk—the chairman of Davenport’s chapter of the Red Cross—disagreed, arguing it would be impossible to enforce such restrictions and that the community should simply isolate the sick. “I believe that the epidemic will run its course,” he said. “I am in favor of quarantining the individual cases.”

All from 1918. Tons more amazing parallels to pretty much every debate we're having today.


https://morning.thedispatch.com/p/th...5vGQmpLaFK0YD8

[Nephrology]

That blows man! On our hospital campus, everybody is told to wear a mask. All nurses are to come in with their street clothes, get into hospital scrubs, work, and leave them in the hospital hamper when leaving. No going home in 'dirty' scrubs or coming to work in personal scrubs. I issue all of my echo techs a N95 mask daily (I tell them to wear a mask over them to minimize contamination of the face of the mask) and to save them even though they will get a new one the next day. All respiratory techs in the the ICU have space suits that a electric powered air filter. So far everything has been pretty quiet. We normally have 200 patients in our hospital on a busy day. Currently we have 150 because we have been clearing out anybody who doesn't need to be hospitalized. I have even made agreements with my competitor cardiologists to cover each other if we start going down with illness or quarantine (and I hate those guys!!! --- strange bedfellows, et al) According to our calculations, the COVID barbarians will at our gates en mass over the next 2-3 weeks.

For anesthesia preceptorship I always show up to hospital in clean scrubs, swap for new ones from machine, and swap again before I leave. That keeps my street clothes from ever entering the hospital. Hard to do without a scrub machine though, not sure if those are common for non surgical units.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

From the Yellow Fever days and the US Mint's policy

https://theconversation.com/how-one-...e-1790s-134297

A brief quote:

The U.S. Mint’s response to yellow fever struck a balance between workers’ and employers’ needs. Workers put on furlough were guaranteed jobs when the public health crisis was over. Meanwhile, the Mint secured their loyalty by promising back pay, so it was able to resume operations quickly after each outbreak

Today:

ROYAL MINT RETOOLS TO MAKE MEDICAL VISORS

Royal Mint making medical visors The Royal Mint has begun mass manufacturing medical visors to protect frontline NHS staff from coronavirus.

Based in Llantrisant, engineers at The Royal Mint developed a medically approved visor design which they can produce thousands of each day.

The first batch of visors are already in use at The Royal Glamorgan Hospital in south Wales.

[Paul D]

For anesthesia preceptorship I always show up to hospital in clean scrubs, swap for new ones from machine, and swap again before I leave. That keeps my street clothes from ever entering the hospital. Hard to do without a scrub machine though, not sure if those are common for non surgical units.

I wear my own practice scrubs with my name, practice logo, etc. In Arizona, most interventionalists wear scrubs all day long. No coat/tie like east coast guys. When I get home, I strip off my shoes, socks, and scrubs and put it in the hamper in the garage. I have a box that I put my personal effects in (watch, badge, pens, keys) and lysol/wipe down before I go into the house with them. I shower and then I am allow to go freely around the house. This protocol was mandated by my wife.

[Nephrology]

I wear my own practice scrubs with my name, practice logo, etc. In Arizona, most interventionalists wear scrubs all day long. No coat/tie like east coast guys. When I get home, I strip off my shoes, socks, and scrubs and put it in the hamper in the garage. I have a box that I put my personal effects in (watch, badge, pens, keys) and lysol/wipe down before I go into the house with them. I shower and then I am allow to go freely around the house. This protocol was mandated by my wife.

Ah yeah if you have home-laundered scrubs that's a little trickier. OR scrub requirements simplifies things. Our university SOM system uses the same OR scrubs at every site in either blue (children's hospital and medicine inpatient) or green (all other surgical services). Machines available in all of the OR control rooms by lockers.

The EM residency program here rebelled, naturally, and buys every new resident 6 pairs of the same brand OR scrub tops with their name, MD and "EMERGENCY MEDICINE embroidered over the pocket. The embroidered top + carhartt pants combo is very popular...

[Dog Guy]

Nevada's governor just issued a stay at home order, statewide, until the end of April. https://www.ktvn.com/story/41962640/...home-directive includes the directive.

A nearby public safety agency directed that any employee who left the state had to go on admin leave and quarantine for 14 days. The California line is about 20 miles away if you go either west or north from Reno. A few guys who had property in rural areas not far across the line had gone to their cabins to grab some stuff so they had to go on leave, even though they didn't spend more than a few hours out of state and didn't stop or interact with anyone. On the other hand, they could have driven all day to Las Vegas, stayed over night, driven home with gas stops along the way, and gone to work since that's all within Nevada. And employees who actually live in California are exempt from the state line restriction. The intent is sound, but the execution is rocky. Hopefully they'll get it sorted out pretty quick since there are a lot of sharp people in that organization.

[Cory]

About freaking time.

https://www.essence.com/news/florida...s-coronavirus/

" Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is finally issuing a state-wide stay-at-home order after facing increasing pressure and criticism as cases in the state have continued to spike, WCTV reports.

According to the report, the order will go into effect on Thursday at midnight, and will only allow residents to leave their homes for essential services or activities. "

This seems to be an "order" with little teeth. It clearly states that it isn't mandatory, and then lists nearly every business in the state as exempt. That might be a bit of an exaggeration... it doesn't list everything. However it does list a ton, and the ones that aren't exempted will just ignore it anyway. Hell, under the current exemptions listed the local offroad & motorcycle dealership could claim they're essential because they perform auto repair.

I honestly feel like this is just a politician who wants to claim he did something. It's not been long since the announcement, so we'll have to see how it's implemented. Right now it seems like this was a pointless edict from a politician that did nothing but confuse a ton of businesses about their ability to operate, and scare the hell out of people who are already scared.

-Cory

[vcdgrips]

IMNSHO, the FLA GOV showed his true colors when he did not close the beaches when he could and should have.
YMMV.

[shootist26]

IMNSHO, the FLA GOV showed his true colors when he did not close the beaches when he could and should have.
YMMV.

Yea. Dumbest fucking move I saw in a long time.

[peterb]

19:45 April 1 2020



For perspective, the New York State "normal" death rate is roughly 440 people/day.