As North America posts record daily COVID-19 infections, it’s time to ask what if the Thanksgiving surge rolls into Christmas. Would limited intensive care resources cope with the flow of people with life-threatening symptoms? We need an answer in case the pandemic overwhelms our hospitals. CNN Health put the question to Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
If The Thanksgiving Surge Rolls Into Christmas It’s a Dangerous Place
Michael Osterholm fears an even larger spike if one surge leads into another. ‘We have to understand we’re in a very dangerous place,’ he says. ‘People have to stop swapping air, it’s just that simple. Americans need to understand how dangerous the virus is, and how much more dangerous it will become’.
Confirmation of this opinion seems to come from actions by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services CMS. They announced the following arrangements Wednesday November 25, 2020:
1… A plan to provide acute hospital care at home
2… Relaxed rules for surgical care outside hospitals
CMS hopes these arrangements will increase care capacity as coronavirus hospitalizations surge.
Vulnerable People Access Critical Non-COVID Care in Safer Settings
Seema Verma is administrator for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. She told CNN Health ‘We’re at a new level of crisis response with COVID-19. But our job is to ensure CMS regulations are not standing in the way of patient care for COVID-19 and beyond’.
With new areas across the country experiencing significant challenges to the capacity of their health care systems, public health officials have generally promoted the idea of small household celebrations. If the Thanksgiving surge rolls into Christmas we might be glad we did.
However, demand for air travel is highest since March 16, 2020. We have heard talk of ‘the darkest days in modern American medical history’. We hope and pray this is not the case, but the balance, sadly may be in its favor.
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Preview Image: Daily New Confirmed Cases
