Fighting COVID-19

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مجاني
Fighting COVID-19
الأربعاء 25 مارس, 2020

Dear Sir,

I am an infectious diseases specialist at the University of Miami and a liberal.

We have to ask ourselves what is the end game of this pandemic.

Endgame

1- Achieving immunity against this novel virus for all the human species and this will only happen if we are all exposed, which is bound to happen with the infection rate of this virus. Although there are other ways that our species will gain immunity, through Epigenetics meaning at some point the immunity itself will go from one person to the other not the virus (for example, you might get exposed to saliva from someone who is immune, who has the antibodies, and you will get his antibodies). Epigenetics is a relatively new science and few people completely understands it, I will refer you to Barbara Mc Clintock  from Cornell university as early as 1931 about jumping genes in species.

2-Development of a vaccine or a miracle cure

So we can either hunker down and wait for a vaccine or a cure or go through the natural process, every choice has its pros and cons, knowing that number one given enough time is going to happen whether you slow it or not and with its human toll.

 All our concern now  is to protect our health care system and being able to give support to people that get sick, which might be a loosing battle by itself since at the end of the day you have a finite number of doctors, nurses and hospitals and an infinite number of potential casualties.

I would have never thought in my whole life that I would say that but Trump proposal is not totally idiotic, but you need to have certain things in place in order to make it safe and workable:

1- Tests for every American. We need to know where the clusters are.

2- Dedicated hospitals were for example the 500 or 1000 beds are all dedicated to Covid care, including with that, respirators, PPE, transport to these hospitals in a timely manner, an App for screening people at home, rapid screening upon arrival at the hospital etc.... Dedicated hospitals will decrease the burden on its staff to multitask different kind of patients, this is creating a huge psychological burden and lots of redundancy.

3-Keeping older people and Immune compromised at home under lock down.

4-Having the rest of the people in the country keep some kind of social distancing, washing hands, and wearing masks as possible.

I have realized that in time of crisis the earth has more fearful people than fearless people. There is a lack of political leadership everywhere not just here,  group thinking is not always good and it always achieve the  same results.

This is my two cents, thank you for reading, sincerely.

Tony Salloum M.D.

 

P.S. We are here in Florida, can you explain to me why we even close the beaches, sun and heat are the best thing for the virus ( there are no non vector transmitted virus i.e. transmitted by mosquitoes or other insects, that does not disappear during the warm season. Make regulation for distancing on the beaches, but do not close them).

 

* We, at the Lebanese Center for Research and Studies, salute Dr Salloum and all Lebanese doctors in Lebanon and abroad for their dedication and effort.

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