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NY hospitals pitch tents, nix surgeries to prepare for influx
- deelowe 7y agoI'm terrified of what's coming. I feel so helpless.
- bound008 7y agoHang in there
- WilliamEdward 7y agoOn the scale of "not worried at all" to "feeling complete helplessness" you should be somewhere in the middle. Maybe 2/3rds of the way up. Respect the situation for what it is, listen to scientists, and you won't have to feel pessimistic.
- ch4s3 7y agoYou’ve got this. Sit tight, and stay occupied.
- zengid 7y agoYou're not alone; the whole world is facing this together. Please do your best to stay calm, because that is the only thing you really have control of. Be vigilant with your hygiene; washing hands, not touching face, etc. Good luck and best regards!
- wux 7y agoIt's OK to be scared. You're not alone in that. It can be helpful to have someone to talk to. Even as we're trying to keep our physical distance, know that it's OK to reach out for help. And it's also OK to step away from the news for a beat if it's causing you anxiety. I work at one of the New York hospitals mentioned in this article. Yes, I'm scared too. [Opinions not that of my employer, etc.] But we're all still showing up every day to take care of our patients, and we'll keep doing so until we can't--and then we have backup lined up. There will be hard days, but those will be in the privacy of the hospital, away from prying eyes. New York will pull through.
- handedness 7y agoA community you may find helpful: https://www.reddit.com/r/coronavirus_support/ https://www.reddit.com/r/coronavirus_support/
- ihuman 7y agoDo you mean https://www.reddit.com/r/CoronavirusSupport/ https://www.reddit.com/r/CoronavirusSupport/ ?
- Gunax 7y agoYou support the virus? Personally, I am against it.
- handedness 7y agoYes, thank you!
- almost_usual 7y agoHonestly work has been a good distraction for me. Might not be healthy but it helps.
- troughway 7y agoDid you see the Louis CK skit about flying in a tin can and complaining about not having wifi on your cell phone? Existence is a very fragile thing. Nature is unforgiving. We as a species have made incredible strides to be where we are today. People all over the world wake up every morning, do their routine, and go about their daily lives. Around them, they are surrounded by people, care free and oblivious to the absurd amount of work it has taken to come to a point where people can relax their minds and go for a walk, get fresh water to drink, go watch a movie with their friends, or get in a fancy car and go for a drive. We will make it through this. We are surrounded by all kinds of deadly shit waiting to kill us, and we are still here, thriving. There are many competent teams working on this to the best of their abilities. Modern medicine is a technological marvel. Two days ago, a team of researchers managed to reproduce the virus which will pave the path to figuring out how to create antibodies. It will take some time, and it has already impacted a lot of people. The death count will not stop going up, but we won't give up either. We have given a middle finger to just about anything that could have killed us. We've erected hamlets, villages, towns, cities, metropolises. We have a station floating in space. Built monuments to things we like and things we despise. We've composed beautiful music to inspire ourselves to wage wars against each other. We are relentless and unstoppable. Hang in there, and don't let helplessness take over you.
- Fezzik 7y agoJust to clarify, that was a Louis CK bit. I enjoy both of their comedic styles. Louis does it in a stand-up special, but here is a good Conan clip, with a great title: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nUBtKNzoKZ4 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nUBtKNzoKZ4
- troughway 7y agoThank you - I blanked out who it was!
- TravHatesMe 7y agoNo I haven't seen that skit, link it if you can. Louis CK tells a similar anecdote on Conan "Everything is amazing and nobody is happy". The passenger beside him is upset that the on-board wifi went down. https://youtu.be/nUBtKNzoKZ4?t=119 https://youtu.be/nUBtKNzoKZ4?t=119 The whole clip is hilarious.
- wbl 7y agoYou can control whether or not you get infected by limiting interaction.
- gdubs 7y agoIn life we deal with things we never could have imagined. But the anticipation of something, or waiting on the edge of the unknown can be even worse. One thing that consistently helps me when I feel a loss of control is to clean and organize. I also meditate. But cleaning up my environment seems to have the effect of also cleaning my mind. With three kids 5 and under at home with us for a while — let’s be real it could be a long time — cleaning and organizing today has helped me and my wife feel a bit more ready for what’s coming. Hang in there, we’re all in this together!
- wideasleep1 7y agoClean Your Room https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGuow4yRtn8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGuow4yRtn8
- officialjunk 7y agowe need more people scared actually, so we change behavior. the people not scared and still acting like normal are propagating the problem.
- johnpowell 7y agoShit... I have a thing scheduled for early next month. Not a full on surgery but it is pretty invasive and urgent and they require me to be in the hospital for a few days. I'm not in New York but I am in hotbed for the current problem. Interventional Radiology is somewhat specialized so hopefully there aren't any interruptions. But they do have about 20 beds in their unit of the hospital.
- jacquesm 7y agoI'd not count on that going through.
- asdfasgasdgasdg 7y agoI don't think you can really know. This person needs to speak with their healthcare providers about timetables, possibly moving things up, etc. Some IR procedures are for seriously urgent issues, like cancer, and I don't think it's right to just toss out random assertions about what might happen in a ward we know nothing about.
- jacquesm 7y agoHere is what is happening: non-emergency surgeries are cancelled all over the place right now to make room for more ICU capacity, to free up personnel and to ensure that those that are post-op and have their immune systems working overtime already are not exposed to one more very nasty virus. So right now the situation is already changing, and rapidly so. Looking two weeks ahead I'd say that the chances that any non-emergency surgeries will be cancelled are much higher than today. New York is but one example of the same pattern that you see happening over and over again and with an exponential spread (the early stages of any pandemic) two weeks is a very long time.
- asdfasgasdgasdg 7y agoI'm aware that is happening. It seems like you are jumping from the fact that some non-urgent surgeries are being cancelled in some wards to an inference that this person's potentially more urgent surgery will be cancelled in the particular ward that was going to perform it. I don't think that's right. There is no need for you to speculate in any case when that person is just sharing their worries. There's no upside.
- softwaredoug 7y agoMy neighbor is a doctor, when he gets called to the quarantine unit, his family doesn't know how long it'll be (weeks? months?) until they see him again. Last night he was headed to work. I saw him saying goodbye to his family with a bag packed. It was horrible. Kids crying, chasing after him...
- jacquesm 7y agoThose people are actual heroes.
- troughway 7y agoI've been hearing over the past week a lot of optimism about how things will return to normal in two weeks (ie. schools are "closed until April <so and so>") Where did these people get the idea that this will be under control in such a short amount of time? Edit: Just to clarify I am not saying this to sow seeds of negativity, just wondering myself how can anyone announce reopening without any basis in reality.
- formercoder 7y agoWish I could be doing something. I’ve just fled to Long Island and am staying in the house reading the news.
- troughway 7y agoIt would not surprise me if there is a rallying call (state-sponsored employment?) for younger and able people to help out in the coming weeks, especially if a longer-term lockdown is happening. Things like picking up/dropping off groceries and other tasks on behalf of the elderly and infirm.
- Buttons840 7y agoEspecially those who have been infected and are immune. (I'm not sure we know to what extend people become immune though?)
- troughway 7y agoI'm really at a loss on this subject because I'm trying to find out answers to two questions that don't have much coverage so far (understandable): 1. The people who "recovered" from this so far, do their CT scans or other tests show alterations to their organs? I've read that survivors of SARS have had permanent damage that later led to issues like cystic fibrosis, and others. 2. Has anyone really become immune to this thing yet? The "UK experiment" is going to be an absolute shitshow if they are walking into this without knowing that it's possible to be immune from it.
- csnover 7y agoRegarding the second question, a preprint of study on SARS-CoV-2 immunity in rhesus macaque indicates that they did develop an immunity. [0] [0] https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.13.990226v1 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.13.990226v1
- 7y ago
- troydavis 7y agoSeattle hospitals are also postponing non-life-threatening surgeries, as much to avoid consuming PPE as for beds and staff: https://www.swedish.org/patient-visitor-info/coronavirus-advisory https://www.swedish.org/patient-visitor-info/coronavirus-adv..., https://www.uwmedicine.org/coronavirus https://www.uwmedicine.org/coronavirus The County is converting at least one motel and at least one parking lot to recovery/isolation/medical support: https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/health/news/2020/March/14-covid.aspx https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/health/news/2020/March/14-c... (scroll to "Temporary housing, isolation and quarantine facilities")
- mdorazio 7y agoJust heard from a surgeon friend today that at least a couple hospitals here in California are doing the same. They're expecting to need those beds for CV patients within the next week.
- maxerickson 7y agoThe surgeon general has asked hospitals nationwide to postpone elective surgery.
- etrautmann 7y agoMy girlfriend is a physician at NYP in NY. It feels like there's almost nothing I can do to help and the worst case projections sound like a true hell I never thought we'd experience. It's even scarier to hear how unprepared the whole system appears to be. The hospitals are extremely concerned about mask supply and they all just received an email on Friday recalling any boxes of masks from anywhere in the hospital to central storage. Apparently patients and others have been walking out with boxes of masks and it's impossible to order more. I know a 60 year old who hasn't practiced medicine in a number of years who expects to jump into service in a week or two when patients are overflowing makeshift shelters.
- dboreham 7y agoHow many weeks have we had to spin up mask factories? They're not exactly high tech items.
- pmorici 7y agoThere is only one medical mask factory still in business in the US. Edit: you can read more about the mask supply issue here. There maybe more than one but very few remain and 95% of masks are imported. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/02/15/coronavirus-mask-shortage-texas-manufacturing/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/02/15/coronavir...
- leetrout 7y agoPlease provide an accurate source for that claim. ETA: unsure why the huge up and down vote swings. OP claimed only one company made masks in the US which is not accurate and then they edited with their source. No idea why I’ve went -1 to +5 and back for originally asking for a source.
- DoreenMichele 7y agoI usually try to stay out of downvote discussions -- the HN guidelines ask us to not engage in such -- but I'm going to suggest that you are going to see a lot more trigger-happy downvotes because there's a pandemic on and it satisfies some psychological desire to shut something -- anything! -- down with a vengeance and post haste. I would be inclined to assume that voting on all forums will be less rational, less calm, cool and collected and yadda for some weeks to come. And when people are actually sick and running a fever, that will amplify the problem. I live with chronic health issues and other stressors. No amount of provisos is ever enough to get other people to not have knee jerk stupid reactions to me failing to be perfectly calm, cool and collected. I imagine you are going to see a whole lot of upset and unwell people bouncing off each other and escalating tension instead of calming it down and this will go on for the duration of the crisis. As a wild ass guess.
- davidw 7y agoAnd at the very same time, a bunch of bars are probably packed full of people. Maddening.
- JohnTHaller 7y agoThey were here in NYC on Friday.
- in3d 7y agoRestaurants had 50%+ drop in traffic in NY state on Friday (opentable data).
- JohnTHaller 7y agoWe were talking about bars. And some of the bars around the neighborhood were packed on Friday night.
- Medicalidiot 7y agoI came here two weeks ago to downvotes and nonmedical people telling me how I was inciting a panic. Welcome to the show, folks. A lot of my colleagues are going to die soon and I'm beyond sad because of it.
- muditgarg 7y agoYeah, I hope it doesn't come to it but this is the right first step. Adapted a flu surge model with folks at my company to estimate bed capacity shortage and it's not pretty. https://qventus.com/blog/predicting-the-effects-of-the-covid-pandemic-on-us-health-system-capacity/ https://qventus.com/blog/predicting-the-effects-of-the-covid...
- dminzi 7y agoI don't know what to do. I am in LA for school, but my family is in NYC. They want me to come back, but it seems like the last place I should be going right now. Being with family is important, but the idea of traveling and adding another person to the population of NYC seems counterproductive to fighting the virus.
- travmatt 7y agoI’m in the exact same boat. I want to fly home and this is the only time I’ll probably ever see super cheap tickets, but I’m young and the possibility that I could expose and infect so many people along the way makes it look as though shelter in place is the most responsible thing to do.
- nate_meurer 7y agoDon't worry about it; if you want to go home now, you should go home. If you're not symptomatic, and if you take even minimal precautions, you're highly unlikely to spread anything. To me, the far more important consideration is if there's benefit in you and your family/friends being together now. That's what would make my decision.
- paganel 7y agoTents work as long as you have enough artificial respirators and it's not too cold outside. Also, you need to have enough medical personnel, if the Chinese stats are correct about 40% of the Wuhan doctors got sick after 2-3 weeks of the whole thing getting really serious and they had to airlift about 6000 medical personnel from other Chinese regions.