It’s just a cold...

I keep hearing people complain about the fear being spread about the corona virus being overblown. I can’t even recall how many times I have heard people make statements like it’s just a cold or the flu is worse. As a nurse I am in a unique position to see the impact of this virus. It’s true that this virus has a low mortality rate and that most people will recover from the virus. The reason why we need to be concerned is not because of how many people will be killed by the virus. We need to be concerned about the people who get the virus and need to be hospitalized in order to ensure we continue to have this high recovery rate. In this country we have 3 ICU beds for every 1000 people and we are dealing with a virus that has been shown to have a 15% hospitalization rate. This means that if everyone gets sick today we will have 150 people who need an ICU beds and only 3 available. This disparity is why social distancing and flattening the curve is so vital in keeping people safe. If we can slow down transmission we can spread out these patients over time and beds can be found for every individual who is sick. If we can’t slow things down we will rapidly run out of beds and resources and hospitals will find themselves in the horrible position of deciding who gets to live and who has to die. Now I have heard those who argue that this disease will only kill the old and the infirm. I have even heard the statements of some of the older generation that they are willing to risk their own health to save the world for their grandchildren. What so many people don’t understand is how many we will lose as a side effect of the disease. The thing that scares me as a nurse is those who will die from the types of things that no one should die of in a first world country. I worry about the 50 year old man who ends up dying of a heart attack because the paramedics took 3 hours to answer his 911 call because they were overwhelmed with all of the corona cases. I worry about the seven year old with acute appendicitis that can’t get surgery because we have used all of the ventilators and we don’t have any available to use for surgery. Stay home, stay safe, flatten the curve.

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