Please don't cave to COVID-19 fatigue. Cases are exploding and we need your help. Again.
Rather than isolating and wearing masks, many are gathering for holiday meals and ignoring state restrictions. The strain on the health system is real.
After a tiring hospital shift in which I had treated an elderly man whose grandson had given him COVID-19, I heard my colleague talking on the phone with a friend about a recent trip she took to a major city. My colleague asked whether she had worn a mask, given the recent surge of coronavirus cases. Definitely, the friend replied, except for when she went clubbing, but nobody was wearing a mask in there.
We were flabbergasted by her blasé attitude. But it’s not just this wayward woman ignoring recommendations from public health officials.
I am constantly peppered with questions from friends, many of whom are college-educated and scientifically savvy, whether it is “OK” to go to indoor parties or host large dinner gatherings. People are getting tired of restrictions. But with cases of COVID-19 continuing to rise nationally and hospitals becoming increasingly full, it is time to battle through this pandemic fatigue and bring back the #flattenthecurve mentality.
Hospitals could be overwhelmed
Remember those days when we all tried to flatten the curve? It seems so long ago, but it has been only nine months since hospital systems were being overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients and we feared that we'd run out of intensive care unit beds and ventilators. At that time, there were widespread public campaigns to slow the spread of the virus through social distancing and masking precautions. This was to avoid large spikes in infections stressing, and possibly breaking, the health care system.
Unfortunately, the number of hospitalizations and COVID-19 cases has surged again, surpassing even those records in April. There are now nearly 100,000 people hospitalized due to the coronavirus, far surpassing the 60,000 hospitalized at the peak of spring. But nine months and over a quarter million deaths later, we are getting pandemic fatigue. Rather than socially isolating and wearing masks, many people are gathering for holiday meals and ignoring state-mandated restrictions.
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The strain on the health care system is real. Personal protective equipment (PPE), including N95 masks, face shields and isolation gowns designed to protect hospital staff, are running short in hospitals around the country. Some nurses have to reuse their N95 masks (designed to be disposed after use) for days on end until they are practically falling apart.
We risk our lives to save the dying
Nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists and custodians are literally putting their lives at risk to care for COVID-19 patients. Over 1,000 health care workers have lost their lives after exposure to the virus, and this is likely an underestimate. It is frustrating that we put our lives at risk to save the dying, but many are still in denial that the coronavirus is lethal or that public health measures are necessary.
As cases explode, it’s not just PPE that grows short, but also the number of bodies working. Staffing has been so strained, North Dakota even adopted a policy to let infected nurses bypass isolating and continue working.
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So many people are dying that “mobile morgues” now exist. It is a disgrace that in the most resource-rich country in the world, we have to store dead bodies in refrigerated trailers because the normal morgues are overflowing.
The situation really is dire. If we do not do our part to limit transmission, hospitals will exceed capacity. We will run out of ventilators and PPE and even more people will die. There is good news on the horizon with promising data on vaccines, but realistically they will not be widely distributed for several months.
In the meantime, we are facing a volume of COVID-19 cases higher than spikes last spring, and the numbers are only increasing. Although there is a light at the end of the tunnel, we are at our darkest time. Please fight through the pandemic fatigue. We need to toughen up, socially distance and mask up. Let’s #flattenthecurve again.
Dr. Thomas K. Lew is an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine and an attending physician of Hospital Medicine at Stanford Health Care – ValleyCare. All expressed opinions are his own. Follow him on Twitter @ThomasLewMD
