COVID-19? Pfft! Just the flu. No biggie. Papa Trump says there's nothing to worry about, so there's nothing to worry about. You guys will let the media scare you about everything.
Now the Italian College of Anesthesia, Analgesia, Resuscitation and Intensive Care (SIAARTI) has published guidelines for the criteria that doctors and nurses should follow in these extraordinary circumstances. The document begins by likening the moral choices facing Italian doctors to the forms of wartime triage that are required in the field of “catastrophe medicine.” Instead of providing intensive care to all patients who need it, its authors suggest, it may become necessary to follow “the most widely shared criteria regarding distributive justice and the appropriate allocation of limited health resources.”
The principle they settle upon is utilitarian. “Informed by the principle of maximizing benefits for the largest number,” they suggest that “the allocation criteria need to guarantee that those patients with the highest chance of therapeutic success will retain access to intensive care.”
The authors, who are medical doctors, then deduce a set of concrete recommendations for how to manage these impossible choices, including this: “It may become necessary to establish an age limit for access to intensive care.”
Those who are too old to have a high likelihood of recovery, or who have too low a number of “life-years” left even if they should survive, will be left to die. This sounds cruel, but the alternative, the document argues, is no better. “In case of a total saturation of resources, maintaining the criterion of ‘first come, first served’ would amount to a decision to exclude late-arriving patients from access to intensive care.”
In an interview in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera on Monday, the anesthesiologist Christian Salaroli compared the situation in hospitals to wartime.
"We decide based on age, and on health conditions. Just like all war situations," he told the paper. "It's not me that decides but the book manuals we studied."
Salaroli went on to say that if a patient came to the hospital with severe respiratory failure, it's likely that the doctor "won't go ahead" with treatment.
Lombardy, the region around Milan that accounts for more than a fifth of Italy’s economic output, is by far the worst-affected part of the country. ... Finding more acute care beds is a “race against time,” Lombardy’s top health official, Giulio Gallera, said in a phone interview. ... More than 80% of the region’s 1,123 acute-care beds are dedicated to coronavirus, after many other patients have been moved elsewhere and 223 extra places have been opened to cope with the emergency. About half of those are occupied, Gallera said.
For nearly two weeks, Cristina Higgins, an American who lives in Italy, has traveled no farther from her apartment building than the driveway. ... Higgins said she rarely posts to Facebook but felt it was important to convey to those outside of Italy who can't comprehend how bad the situation is that they need to do whatever they can to not pass on the disease. ... "You have a chance to make a difference and stop the spread in your country. Push for the entire office to work at home today, cancel birthday parties, and other gatherings, stay home as much as you can. If you have a fever, any fever, stay home. Push for school closures, now. Anything you can do to stop the spread, because it is spreading in your communities — there is a two week incubation period — and if you do these things now you can buy your medical system time," she wrote.
“Effectively some of the hospitals in Lombardy are under a stress that is much heavier than what this area can support,” Dr. Massimo Galli, head of infectious disease at Milan’s Sacco Hospital, told Sky TG24. “This epidemic is on a scale that is larger than anyone could have thought, imagined or prevented.” ... Some 9% of people diagnosed with the COVID-19 need intensive care, Borrelli said.
Me and my partner (She's also a teacher (though she teaches year six students)) were already preparing materials for the kids to do in case of the seemingly likely event we get closed down and well... our union just told us to prepare for the worst 😧
Previously known as Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy
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"You don't have to save the world to find meaning in life. Sometimes all you need is something simple, like someone to take care of"
Got the 5am call that my kid's schools are closed at least until the 26th. They are trying to figure out ways to basically do online learning county wide.
@JohnnyShoulder Champions League? They're in the Europa League.
Currently, on Google it says:
Sat, 07/03: Arsenal 1-0 West Ham (FT) Postponed Time TBD: Man. City v. Arsenal Sat, 14/03: Brighton v. Arsenal Postponed Time TBD: Southampton v. Arsenal
We've been doing physical material in advance the past week so that if we do close down we can give our students a folder each with all the work they'll potentially miss out on.
...Not to mention that way they can't try to weasel out of it saying they had no internet or anything to do any online learning! 😅
Previously known as Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy
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"You don't have to save the world to find meaning in life. Sometimes all you need is something simple, like someone to take care of"
@WanderingBullet sorry I meant in the Premier league mid week game against man City. The match against Southampton has been moved because of the FA Cup, nothing do to with the coronavirus.
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
That’s my uni emailed us to say that the semester’s basically being shut down early. Exams are pretty much off and it looks like they’re going to mark us based on coursework and deliver virtual lectures. Not gonna lie, that suits me fine because I barely went to lectures since I was playing Yakuza 3 so much 😅
@Octane I'm about 50/50 between home and actually going in the office typically. Wife works part time during school hours so it's not a huge adjustment for us specifically. We're very fortunate & blessed in that regard though many don't have that flexibility.
@redd214 Yeah, I can imagine. I've heard paid leave isn't a common thing in the US either.
I was just informed that public gatherings will be limited to 100 people in our country. That means lectures at university with more than 100 students attending will be cancelled. Next week we have 150 students both in the mornings and the afternoon, so we'll have to see how that plays out.
I feel like these measures are a little too late. Obviously they want to avoid an Italy situation, but they should've done this weeks ago if you want it to be effective.
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