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Hospital physician: The possible coronavirus patients keep coming, but we don't have enough tests for them all
By adamg on Wed, 03/11/2020 - 10:11pm
Dr. Monique Aurora Tello, a primary-care physician at Mass. General, reported today from the MGH emergency room:
Saw 8 people w probable coronavirus this morning, some had been on buses and planes even this week, testing pending for some but the State wouldn’t let us test them all. Not enough tests!! I’ll blog about this too but point is to avoid crowds, stay 6 feet away from people if possible, no handshakes, don’t touch your face after touching anything anyone else has touched, wash your hands w soap and warm water for the full “Happy birthday” song often. It’s a crazy time but we can prevent it getting worse! My public health message of the day.
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Comments
Desperate times require Desparate measures
The mayor has to consider reopening Long Island which has a hospital and several buildings which could quarantine and isolate several thousand victims of this dreaded virus. If the city of Quincy hadn't sued the city of Boston the bridge would have been built by now.
Why?
Home isolation seems to be working fine.
Homeless
For homeless patients who have the less severe kind of COVID-19 that would be fine convalescing at home rather than in a hospital - where should they go? Not saying Long Island is the solution, but what is the plan?
It does?????
It does?????
Yeah, even if that were a good idea..
.. it's hard to find several thousand victims if you have fewer than 8 tests.
Even if we had the tests
Who would be tested? People with symptoms.
Who is most likely to be spreading this? People without symptoms, because they go to work, ride the T, go to school, and have no freaking idea that they are playing the role of Typhoid Mary.
Long Island Hospital
Oh Please. Long Island Hospital has not been a Hospital since 1970. We would have to demo what is there now and rebuild a Hospital. That would take 10 years. Long Island Hospital is not a solution to the situation we have now.
Anons on the internet know so much stuff!
Waaayyy more than physicians at the ER on the front lines and scientists involved with this bug.
Adam, can you just spike these horrifically ignorant anon comments? They aren't helping. Some random person's recommendations based on panic and divorced from scientific reality don't contribute to meaningful understanding of the situation.
Long Island Bridge
THe bridge would be a long ways off even without the lawsuit.
Boats are current available.
Where is Mahty?
Christ
Not enough tests for EIGHT people with symptoms and likely exposure? At one of the country's top hospitals? We're really on our own with this one folks. The precautions we take to stay healthy and prevent the spread of the virus would be the same even if we did have testing widely available, but there are many people in the absence of testing trying to sort out whether they have allergies, or are overtired, or have a cold, and it sure would help us make good decisions if more of us could know for sure. The more I read about it, the symptoms are not that clear. (eg. Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson felt like they had a cold, with a slight fever. Nothing about a high fever or a cough, which I'd read were two of the biggest signs).
Good luck everyone.
Not to add fuel to the fire,
Not to add fuel to the fire, but we are proper fucked. The 200+ Biogen meeting was the "game over" for our area, and quite a few of those people appear to have carried the virus elsewhere.
It's beyond containment. Don't panic, take precautions, flatten the curve.
The plight of the homeless
According to the latest census there are over 7000 homeless in the city of Boston. These numbers will swell as towns all over New England will ship the homeless who are sick into the city to seek medical care. Hospitals will soon be overrun and tents are being set up to handle the overflow. If the homeless who test positive are barred from shelters and there are no beds available in hospitals where are they supposed to self quarantine? Long Island is not the best solution but it is better than none at all.
Have been doubting my own husband for days
My husband has been coming home from his call shifts for the past 7 days and has been saying exactly this. I have been doubting him. How couldn't he physically order a test for a suspected patient? Using his medical terminology, he called it all a "shitshow".