TN doctors warn ICU beds are filling up fast, again beg Gov. Lee to adopt a statewide containment strategy
This is not a news article but excerpts of press releases from ProtectMyCare, a self-described nonpartisan coalition of Tennessee medical professionals who say Gov. Bill Lee’s rush to reopen Tennessee without a statewide virus-containment strategy is what caused COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations to skyrocket.
They say the State’s “conflicting or weak” public education efforts created an inefficient, county-by-county response that left employers and citizens confused — and alone — in figuring out to stay safe in this health crisis.
At a virtual press conference on Monday, July 6, dozens of ICU physicians begged Lee’s administration to allow “science to drive decision-making, and not politics.”
Update: I am publishing this because to hear doctors “beg” for help, from Italy (my former adopted homeland) to here, for months on end, is new in my lifetime. However, while in Italy they were mostly begging people to stay home in the U.S. they are begging for that, for us to wear masks, and for some political leaders to take the health crisis more seriously than they are. Another major difference? In Italy, COVID case counts have dropped significantly, while ours have — to the horror of many — grown exponentially.
NASHVILLE -- Across the state, patients have filled 100 ICU beds over just a few days, dropping the number of available beds from 480 before the 4th of July to just 393 ICU beds remaining as of July 8. On [7/7/20], state health data showed hospitals admitted 53 new Covid-19 patients, which places the average daily increase in hospitalizations above 40 new patients.
Dr. Richard Fremont, Chair of Internal Medicine and Associate Professor of Pulmonary Critical Care at Meharry Medical College, says interventions are needed now because cases and hospitalizations lag weeks behind infections.
Fremont: "When patients get sick enough to be in an ICU with COVID-19, we are seeing lengths of stay over 14 days and a terribly high mortality rate for those who require a ventilator. This is why we are seeing shortages in ICU capacity throughout the country where the virus is surging.
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The maps below show new COVID-19 cases by county, adjusted for population density to make the comparison relevant and relative whether the county’s population and size is large or small.
Green: Less than 1 new case per day per 100,000 people. The virus is spreading but not out of control.
Yellow: Between 1 to 5 new cases per day per 100,000 people. This means there should be interventions in place to begin slowing the spread: mask mandates, physical distancing requirements, accountability for people who endanger others.
Orange: 5-10 new cases per day per 100,000 people. Worsening spread, if interventions are not in place you are falling behind.
Red: 10-20 new cases per day per 100,000 people. This is trouble. When the virus is spreading greater than 10 new cases per day per 100,000 people without interventions in place, the chances of asymptomatic transmission is increasing greatly.
Dark Red: over 20 new cases per day per 100,000 people. This is spread where failure to intervene with physical distancing requirements and mask mandates has become reckless, dangerous and the threat to public health and health care infrastructure risk at its greatest.
Map 1:
As of June 7, much of Tennessee was GREEN or YELLOW averaging fewer than 10 new cases per day per 100,000 people. It shows the stay-at-home order worked.
Map 2:
As of July 7th most of Tennessee is now RED, with 10-20 new cases per day per 100,000 people and with some counties dangerously exceeding that with as many as 30 or 40 new cases per day per 100,000.
Dr. Aaron Milstone [Williamson Medical Center critical care pulmonologist at who led thousands of physician in lobbying Lee for a mandated shelter-in-place in March]: “This health crisis is bigger than any one city or county and it calls for state and federal leadership and intervention. You heard Monday from 39 of my colleagues across the state working in ICUs treating COVID patients right now. They are exhausted, they feel undermined and defeated - every day they are putting their lives on the line to protect the public and Gov. Lee has left them out on that limb on their own.”
Before Tennessee can safely reopen, before schools and other activities are safe to resume, Tennessee must first get the health crisis under control. The interventions needed to slow the spread of COVID-19 are the same ones that Tennessee health experts have been pleading the State to adopt for months:
Issue a Mask Requirement with penalties for people who endanger others. When people refuse to wear masks it doesn’t protect their liberty — this selfishness is a threat to the liberty of everyone else. When people ignore speed limits and drive recklessly they are fined because they are endangering others. When people are drunk driving, they are fined, because they are endangering others. In this health crisis not wearing a mask and not staying apart endangers the lives of countless others and prolongs this health crisis.
Ensure rapid and regular testing. A test today only shows whether you are infected today, and that does nothing to determine whether you get infected tomorrow. Only regular, routine testing for every citizen will solve this problem.
Rapidly expand contact tracing and regularly report on it. We must be able to break chains of transmission which we can only do if those who have come in contact with COVID are identified and contacted so that they can isolate. Employers need to know that people who came in contact with COVID are isolating and not coming into their stores or offices endangering countless others.
Have Accountability for Employers and People who Endanger Others. Require employers to have safety measures in place to protect workers and the public: physical separation by 6 feet and masked and hold them accountable with fines and other consequences when they don’t. If an employer is endangering the public or their workers, they need a way to hold them accountable.
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