The URL: (https://youtu.be/WxyH1rkuLaw)
Family and friends.
The url I pasted above is worth the 20 minutes it takes to listen to it.
But, I want to summarize it for you in case you don’t take the time. It is quite empowering.
First, the speaker is Dr David Price, from Weil Cornell, a 1200 bed hospital in NYC, maybe largest in NY, which is now seeing only COVID-19 patients. By the time they get to him, they need the ICU. In short, he’s an authority. He and his colleagues are truly on the front lines. His video has gone viral. I checked him out to make sure he was a doctor at Weil Cornell.
Second, he says they now understand the disease – how people get it, what they need to do after the get it, and when they should go to a hospital. He speaks with great confidence.
Third, in case you read no further: we need facial masks – non-medical is fine – and we needs ways to disinfect our hands after we touch any surface outside the home, or disinfect the surfaces themselves. Both of these things are in short supply, even non-medical masks. Over here in the valley, Debi and I need to work with Nicole and Haley to see if we can find a way to get masks and disinfectant. While we have known the value of each, we haven’t gone to great effort to find them. Now, I think we need to do so.
This is what he said:
First, The number one way people are contracting this virus is through a transfer from the hands to the face. Thus, wearing a protective mask when you leave your home is to keep you from touching your face after you touch something else: a grocery cart, a door, an elevator key, or a key on a payments pad at the point of sale, or another person. (This is the same thing that Dr. James Robb, of UCSD wrote in the first thing I sent you, five weeks ago.) He says we must become almost silly conscious of where are hands are and where they are going, and where they have been. And, if you touch anything outside your home, wash/disinfect/ your hand. Soap and water is fine, except that capability isn’t available when you walk out of the grocery store. Obviously, if you have disinfectant wipes, they would be.
Compared to hands to face, the second rule is stay away from people. Distance yourself. Walking by a person who is infected, that is, being in their space for seconds, is not going to get you infected. The key here is what we have already been told. Do not have sustained contact with anyone outside the household where you live. Sustained contact – unprotected, close proximity – with anyone who has a fever, or is about to get it, for even 10-15 minutes, can transfer the virus to you. But, it is sustained, not coincidental, for example, walking by someone.
The point is: he says, if you follow these two simple rules you will not get the virus. They are convinced of that.
His words will cause me to take both of these principles – the mask and disinfectant, which I have known for five weeks – much more seriously.
Second, what do you do if you get COVID-19? He says, the number one way people are getting the virus is a transfer from family members. So, he say, if you get a fever, isolate yourself in your own home. Eliminate any physical contact with your family member. Wear a medical mask if you need to come out to prepare food, etc. Wipe off every surface you touch. Note, he says you need a medical mask to protect your loved ones, a N-95 type mask. He says, you need to behave this way for 7 days.
Third, he says if you have mild symptoms, isolate for 1-2 days, and if you feel better you don’t have the virus.
Fourth, when should you seek serious medical help. i.e. go to a hospital? The answer: when you feel short of breadth.
Fifth, will I die if I go to the hospital? (Based on the TV coverage, this would not be a strange question for one to ask.) His answer. Going to the hospital is not a death sentence. They believe, of the 100% of people who get this virus perhaps 10% might need to go to the hospital, and about 1-3% might end up needing a ventilator, and of those, the vast majority will come off the ventilator in 7-10 days and go home.
