Follow-up on my Eight COVID Assertions

Yesterday’s post generated some good comments. Two emergency medicine specialists felt that I was both wrong and insulting in saying that hospitals were not overwhelmed. As a doc in NYC, I would suggest that your assertion 3 was indeed quite wrong and will be wrong in many more places before we are done— Josh Socolow (@Docjoshsoc) December 13, 2020 Jfc you weren't in Connecticut in April, and you aren't here now.We weren't (and aren't) fatally overwhelmed because of massive & costly efforts by our system. Anything less would have been catastrophic.Your blithe dismissal is kind of insulting to our experience. pic.twitter.com/RTKOKKeT4s— Brooks Walsh (@BrooksWalsh) December 13, 2020 What I meant in the word ‘overwhelmed’ is the notion of not being able to support a sick patient in the ICU or on a vent. That didn’t happen, but both doctors make important points. First I mean no insult to my frontline colleagues. It’s the opposite really. As a specialist who deals mostly on the treatment side of things, I’ve held those who must make diagnoses in the highest regard. Their work in the pandemic has only increased that respect. Second, the point that there were consequences to the “massive and costly” efforts to shift resources is valid. Data in our (cardiology) journals hint at the fact that heart attacks and stroke admissions were way down during the height of the pandemic. But...
Source: Dr John M - Category: Cardiology Authors: Source Type: blogs