We Need More Physical Distancing Now

Being a leader is difficult. Making hard decisions for the benefit of others is made more difficult when everyone doesn’t understand the seriousness of a situation. Where would the US be today without the NBA suspending their season? Consider that. It took the executives of a sports league to respond pro-actively before others would follow suit. That happened on a national level. We need it to happen on a local level. Why aren’t leaders concerned enough? In today's information saturated world you can choose an expert in a moment that just confirms your existing beliefs. This virus is just the flu, there's an expert just for you! Information like this has been shared and believed for weeks now. Only in the past few days are many leaders waking up to the reality of the situation we are in. Meanwhile those who study infectious diseases as a career and are the foremost experts in the world have been largely ignored. They are clearly saying shut more non-essential activities or we will end up like Italy and Wuhan, except all across the US at once. What now? Much great physical distancing will be needed to stop the spread. In a democracy, in the early days, people have to volunteer to do that. The time is coming very quickly where it likely will become a requirement. California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday called for the home isolation of all seniors (65+) in the state of California and the immediate shutdown of bars, nightclubs, brew pubs and wineries to help stop the spread of coronavirus. He’s calling for much greater distancing in restaurants. We need wise & informed leaders to encourage people to take this very seriously. This has to happen at every level simultaneously, national, state and local. Flattening the curve sounds nice and it's a step in the right direction. But we do not have the medical capacity to handle this disease even if we flatten the curve a bit. The curve needs to be smashed down to the ground. In New York today, 65 ICU beds were occupied by coronavirus patients as of Sunday afternoon. The state has recorded 729 cases of the disease as of Sunday. “The wave could break the hospital system,” Cuomo said of the number of potential cases. “In my opinion, which is not science-based, you will not be able to flatten the curve to avoid the wave. You will be short thousands of ICU beds, thousands of ventilators.” Cuomo is requesting military intervention and for the Federal Government to step in to build emergency medical facilities. NYC could quarantine off in the next few days. Mercy Hospital has 16 ICU beds. We have over a hundred thousand people in Douglas County. A low estimate is that 5% of cases require intensive care and 2.5% of cases require intensive help with things like ventilators. Even if we are able to conjure up enough ventilators, you still need a significant amount of trained staff to run them and care for the patients. So the ventilators aren't even the biggest issue according to Dr Dannenhoffer of Douglas Public Health Network. "Almost always, the limiting factor will be staff, as ventilator care is tricky and requires lots of training and experience." Dannenhoffer said. If we fight this war at our hospitals across the country, we've already lost. The war has to be fought out in our communities and that's only going to happen when people take it seriously. Right now, we need leaders to take it seriously and then act courageously in the best interest of those they lead. If too many people get this virus at once in our County, we will not have a way to help them all. Incredibly difficult decisions will have to be made about who receives care and who doesn’t. Are we going to wait until our Governor tells us to greatly increase physical distancing measures? Or are we going to be proactive and limit the spread of this virus as far as it depends on us? I say this all with soberness and great care for you all. I know and understand the fallout is going to be enormous. We’re in this together and let’s find ways to support each other in the weeks and months ahead. Much love to you all.