Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Is the Italian medical system infected?

The data out of Italy are really interesting.  The pattern of deaths there suggest that very old, very sick people catch the virus in the hospital.  In other words, the virus is simply the coup de grace for very sick elderly patients.  If this is the case, there are very strong implications for the US:
We have to, must, keep the virus out the medical system. 
  • We need to seriously quarantine the sufferers away from other sick people.
  • We need to set up testing facilities at all medical centers and test the medical personnel daily.
  • In areas with a number of COVID-19 infections, we need to set up separate field hospitals. There are a number of commercial versions of these that are expandable by adding modules, and are pathogen-tight, with airlocks at the doors, HEPA exhaust filters and negative air pressure maintained throughout. We know how to do this stuff, we’ve just got to do it.
  • We need to test in-hospital patients at the time of their arrival and continue to test them at intervals during their stay.
  • We’ll have to be very careful with visitors to patients in the hospitals
It’s a big job, and we absolutely have to do it.
Note that we should be doing all of this anyway, but The Powers That Be seem too busy threatening to fire nurses that wear N95 masks.

8 comments:

Old NFO said...

Interesting take... And makes sense, especially when you throw in the anti-vaxxer tendencies in Italy among other places. There is NO herd immunity.

Divemedic said...

My son is a nurse practitioner who works in the ED. He was told earlier this week that they are no longer permitted to wear masks of any kind while treating potential Wuhan virus patients.

Aesop said...

@Divemedic:

That's asinine, and I'd be filing criminal negligence lawsuits the same day, starting with the CEO, CNO, and anyone lesser who tried to enforce it.

Borepatch,
Couldn't agree more.
https://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2020/03/kung-flu-victims-bus-undercarriage.html

Will Brown said...

@Divemedic

Did your son immediately walk out of that ED? Did you encourage him to? If ever there was a time in US history when having a medical professional qualification/degree with work experience is an overwhelmingly dominant employment bargaining position, during the middle of a pandemic would seem to be that time.

Your employer (or anyone else really) can order you to attempt suicide; it's up to you to decline. There are simply too many employment options within the medical field generally, never mind during a pandemic, to ever justify accepting such abuse from one's employer, or anyone else. That said, you do you.

LSP said...

Good call.

Beans said...

Many of the problems with Italy's medical system is... it's socialist.

Socialism kills, directly, indirectly. Socialism, and Communism, kills.

Jonathan H said...

Have you accounted for the way Italy is determining cause of death?

According to multiple reports that I have seen, deaths are being blamed on covid if the body tests positive for it regardless of what actually killed the person.
I have also seen a chart showing that most of the deaths in Italy are people who had multiple serious conditions already.

it appears that someone in Italy decided to dump all the blame they could on the virus... probably another symptom of socialized medicine!

Aesop said...

Jonathan,

Let's grant your premise.

So, what made all those people decide to die right now, and at 300-400% the death rate from last March?

What variable changed, besides the presence of Kung Flu?

I'll wait over here while you work that one out.