4 ms·

> Cross contamination is not a concern when someone is dying here and now and likely has the same disease as the guy next to him who is also dying If COVID ev

> Cross contamination is not a concern when someone is dying here and now and likely has the same disease as the guy next to him who is also dying If COVID evolves into multiple strains, then there is a real risk of cross-infection that would make the immune system forced to work harder? Moreover, a lot of the pneumonia deaths are not due to covid itself but rather due to opportunistic infections (often bacterial) that end up causing the pneumonia that causes death. Letting two COVID patients share a ventilator could mean that now one is exposed to a novel bacteria in the other that causes them to develop pneumonia.

lordnacho 7y ago
But it doesn't have to be covid patients. There will still be people who need a ventilator but aren't part of the epidemic, freeing up ventilators for covid patients.
- tathougies 7y ago
  As an example, my aunt just recently had a heart attack about two weeks before this covid stuff and had to be put on a ventilator. While in the ICU she developed an infection from a rare fungal disease that had been in her lungs for a while but suddenly had the opportunity to grow and cause respiratory distress. A lot of people have strange microbes in them that are being held at bay by the immune system. When all of a sudden you expose an already immuno-distressed person to someone else's novel microbes, you risk opportunistic infections, even in non-covid patients. I'm sure they can figure out how to re-use ventilators, but there probably needs to be some kind of assurance so that things can't cross.
- AntonStratiev 7y ago
  Based on data from China, 97% of the people who need ventilators will die anyway: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30633-4/fulltext https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6... The Ventilator just keeps them alive for a few days, but there are other bodily systems failing and causing death.

lordnacho 7y ago

But it doesn't have to be covid patients. There will still be people who need a ventilator but aren't part of the epidemic, freeing up ventilators for covid patients.

tathougies 7y ago
As an example, my aunt just recently had a heart attack about two weeks before this covid stuff and had to be put on a ventilator. While in the ICU she developed an infection from a rare fungal disease that had been in her lungs for a while but suddenly had the opportunity to grow and cause respiratory distress. A lot of people have strange microbes in them that are being held at bay by the immune system. When all of a sudden you expose an already immuno-distressed person to someone else's novel microbes, you risk opportunistic infections, even in non-covid patients. I'm sure they can figure out how to re-use ventilators, but there probably needs to be some kind of assurance so that things can't cross.
AntonStratiev 7y ago
Based on data from China, 97% of the people who need ventilators will die anyway: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30633-4/fulltext https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6... The Ventilator just keeps them alive for a few days, but there are other bodily systems failing and causing death.