What some are forgetting when considering the reaction to this virus is that it is a completely new virus...though closely related to the SARS virus. We didn’t know exactly how it was transmitted (we’re still trying to fully understand all aspects of that), what the proper precautions were for both healthcare workers, and the public, we had no effective medications and no vaccine (we now have 1 somewhat effective drug, Remdesivir, but only a limited supply). We didn’t know how long it could live on different surfaces, or what could be used to kill it.
So, no, the media didn’t necessarily overhype this virus. They didn’t know, and what they were saying was essentially true...it is a very dangerous bug that makes a large portion of those positive very sick, and of those who get very sick, many of those die. It’s easy to Monday morning quarterback now because we can look at it with the knowledge learned from China, Italy, the US, South Korea and others. A lot of lives were lost while we were trying to figure things out.
New York got hit very hard by this, but they also have a lot of major hospitals who could help distribute those patients. We did a lot of distributing and coordinating in Philadelphia. We surged, but we never got overwhelmed, and had excess capacity that we didn’t end up needing...thankfully. The stay at home orders, social distancing, and wearing masks helped greatly with that. I was talking with one of our ID (infectious diseases) docs last night, and he was telling me that having the staff wear masks and goggles has really helped to prevent transmission to the staff, and between staff....we’ve had no staff become positive at work since then. From outside, yes, but not from work.
We’ve learned a lot...and we’ve learned a lot from those in other countries who were the first guinea pigs...and a lot of healthcare workers overseas became very sick, and a bunch were lost. We’ve lost some in the states too...I had colleagues who were intubated and on vents.
This could have been much worse, and yes we would’ve been overwhelmed if not for the stay at home orders, shut down, and social distancing. We were approaching capacity even with those precautions in place. Smaller community hospitals would not have the capacity we have, the medical expertise (we normally draw their sickest patients into our system for advanced therapies), they do not have the buying power we have for medicines and PPE. If this had spread unchecked to the smaller hospitals and the interior of the country, they would’ve been overwhelmed much more quickly.
The next wave, coupled with the seasonal flu could very easily tip us back to the breaking points, especially if the supply chain issues for test kits, medicines, and PPE are not sorted out. We use a lot of the same supplies for influenza precautions that we use for Covid, adding to the strain. Heck, we use a lot of the same supplies for ANY patients on precautions...other Coronaviruses, rhinovirus, TB, disseminated herpes zoster, etc. Those things don’t go away just because Covid is around. Those patients still need to be cared for, and they use up supplies too. Patients with MRSA, MDRO, VRE, CDiff, etc...all use supplies too.
I can’t stress this enough, no this is not an overreaction. If anything it was an under-reaction because we should’ve shut things down a lot sooner than we did. That’s water under the bridge now, and we can’t go back...or get back the people we’ve lost...but we better damn well be learning from this. And until we have an effective vaccine, this ain’t going away any time soon.