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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsYOUNG AND UNAFRAID OF THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC? GOOD FOR YOU. NOW STOP KILLING PEOPLE
I'm a doctor in a major hospital in Western Europe. Watching you Americans (and you, Brits) in these still-early days of the coronavirus pandemic is like watching a familiar horror movie, where the protagonists, yet again, split into pairs or decide to take a tour of a dark basement.
The real-life versions of this behavior are pretending this is just a flu; keeping schools open; following through with your holiday travel plans, and going into the office daily. This is what we did in Italy. We were so complacent that even when people with coronavirus symptoms started turning up, we wrote each off as a nasty case of the flu. We kept the economy going, pointed fingers at China and urged tourists to keep traveling. And the majority of us told ourselves and each other: this isn't so bad. We're young, we're fit, we'll be fine even if we catch it.
Fast-forward two months, and we are drowning. Statistically speakingjudging by the curve in Chinawe are not even at the peak yet, but our fatality rate is at over 6 percent, double the known global average.
Put aside statistics. Here is how it looks in practice. Most of my childhood friends are now doctors working in north Italy. In Milan, in Bergamo, in Padua, they are having to choose between intubating a 40-year-old with two kids, a 40-year old who is fit and healthy with no co-morbidities, and a 60-year-old with high blood pressure, because they don't have enough beds. In the hallway, meanwhile, there are another 15 people waiting who are already hardly breathing and need oxygen.
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https://www.newsweek.com/young-unafraid-coronavirus-pandemic-good-you-now-stop-killing-people-opinion-1491797
beachbumbob
(9,263 posts)so the nightmare of having a pandemic is slowly setting in. America will be devastate as our leadership is so moronic.
dewsgirl
(14,961 posts)your organs. The media and their just a flu/elderly pre existing conditions narratives are giving people a false sense of security.
patricia92243
(12,595 posts)C_U_L8R
(44,998 posts)FirstLight
(13,360 posts)I guess better late than never...
I have one appointment tomorrow and then I'm stocking up and locking in.
50 years old with an auto immune issue... And worried I should have been doing this sooner...