Our standard for flu is a procedural mask, and yes, I wear one. There was an excellent JAMA study showing that a procedural mask is as efficacious as an N-95.
Our standard for Covid at work is a face shield and procedural mask, and I wear that. It is also a newer, more deadly illness. I use airbonre precaustions more frequently, because there is ample evidence of aerosolization and airborne spread. The death rate is much higher than season flu, and the health system is overwhelmed.
It is hard, if not impossible, to compare Covid with any established disease, because we are still learning about it.
It’s not impossible to compare covid with established flu seasons...we know Covid is less deadly for kids and young folk.
Covid has a rounding error down to ZERO for mortality in the overall ages from 0-49. From 50-64 the ifr is still at 0.4%. Only at above age 70 you hit higher than 1%
Meanwhile flu hospitalizes plus kills orders of magnitude more kids than covid does
Anyone forget the flu season of 2018? (Of course we all did. Hospitals operating at or above capacity is nothing new). ALL of the following are headlines from FLU only two years ago:
"Tallia says his hospital is 'managing, but just barely,' at keeping up with the increased number of sick patients in the last three weeks. The hospital’s urgent-care centers have also been inundated, and its outpatient clinics have no appointments available.”
"Dr. Bernard Camins, associate professor of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, says that UAB Hospital cancelled elective surgeries scheduled for Thursday and Friday of last week to make more beds available"
“We had to treat patients in places where we normally wouldn’t, like in recovery rooms,” says Camins. “The emergency room was very crowded, both with sick patients who needed to be admitted”
"In CA… several hospitals have set up large 'surge tents' outside their emergency departments to accommodate and treat … patients. Even then, the LA Times reported this week, emergency departments had standing-room only, and some patients had to be treated in hallways.”
"In Fenton, Missouri, SSM Health St. Clare Hospital has opened its emergency overflow wing, as well as all outpatient centers and surgical holding centers, to make more beds available to patients who need them. Nurses are being “pulled from all floors to care for them,”
“it’s making their pre-existing conditions worse,” she says. “More and more patients are needing mechanical ventilation due to respiratory failure”
“From Laguna Beach to Long Beach, emergency rooms were struggling to cope with the overwhelming cases… and had gone into 'diversion mode,' during which ambulances are sent to other hospitals.”
“Hospitals across the state are sending away ambulances, flying in nurses from out of state and not letting children visit their loved ones for fear they’ll spread… Others are canceling surgeries and erecting tents in their parking lots to triage the hordes of… patients.”
“There’s a little bit of a feeling of being in the trenches. We’re really battling these infections to try to get them under control,” McKinnell said. “We’re still not sure if this is going to continue … “
"At Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, waiting rooms turned into exam areas as a medical tent was built in order to deal with the surge of patients. A Houston doctor said local hospital beds were at capacity”
“Dr. Anthony Marinelli says they've seen a major spike in… cases. It's so overwhelmed the community hospital that they've gone on bypass at times -- that means they tell ambulances to bypass this ER and find another.”
“Dr. Atallah, the chief of emergency medicine at Grady, says the hospital called on a mobile emergency department based nearly 250 miles away to help tackle the increasing patient demand. "At 500-plus patients a day you physically just need the space to put a patient in. “
Across the country, medical centers are taking extraordinary measures.
time.com
Take UAB Hospital's tips for staying well during flu season.
alabamanewscenter.com
From Laguna Beach to Long Beach, emergency rooms were struggling to cope with the increased cases of influenza and had gone into "diversion mode."
losangeles.cbslocal.com
California hospitals have had to scramble for more space and staff to keep up with the high numbers of patients showing up in the ER sick with a deadly strain of the flu.
www.latimes.com
Big-city hospitals in Texas have been overwhelmed this week by an influx of flu patients, and state health officials say influenza activity is widespread across the state.At Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, waiting rooms turned into exam areas as a me
ktxs.com
There is a major outbreak of the flu virus both nationally and here in the Chicago area.
www.fox32chicago.com
For the second year in a row, Grady Memorial Hospital is opening a mobile ER just outside one of the busiest emergency departments in the Southeast.
www.fox5atlanta.com
