One of the physicians at one of the main hospitals in my metropolitan area wrote a post on Facebook that got my attention. I asked if I could share it here.
From Kacia Lee, MD at HCMC:
MN friends,
We need to talk. I know you’re getting stir crazy with this stay at home order. The weather is lovely, you miss your people, can’t we just have ONE little get-together??? The answer is NO. Here’s why:
I’ve been working in our Viral Screening Clinic for a month, and in the last few days I’ve seen a shift in our patients. Three weeks ago we were seeing primarily the “worried well”; two weeks ago it was travelers; a week ago it was healthcare workers. This week it’s people who are sick **because they weren’t social distancing**: they drove a relative to a city a few hours away; they got together with a friend from out of town; they met up with a coworker a couple times; the whole family was staying at home except dad, he got sick, and now the whole family is sick; etc. ALL of these were avoidable! But SOCIAL DISTANCING ONLY WORKS IF YOU DO IT CONSISTENTLY.
Today was the busiest day we’ve ever had in the viral clinic: 135 patients before I left for the day, with the evening crew ready to take over. I saw 25 patients myself (for reference, a normal “busy” day for me in clinic is 16-18 patients).
I know this is hard. I know we’re now taking steps to “open the economy”. But from what I’m seeing on the “front lines”, all of this talk of reopening is painfully off the mark. WE HAVE NOT FLATTENED THE CURVE; THE NUMBERS ARE GROWING. Please, please, PLEASE — STAY HOME if you can! If not for yourself, for your family and friends; for the people you could unwittingly pass the virus on to. Stay safe. Stay healthy. Take care of each other. We are quite literally all in this together!
Love,
Your friendly neighborhood doc
STAY HOME
