Dr. Pissed Off: The bleeding stops when people bleed to death

South Bay COVID-19 deaths, as of July 6, 2020. SubliminalMachines.com

South Bay COVID-19 deaths, as of July 6, 2020. SubliminalMachines.com

People are idiots.

Last week, an older patient asked what he should do to protect himself. He owns a small, essential business. He said if he’s sick for two to four weeks, he’ll lose his business, and his house and his wife will make him move north to be closer to the grandkids.

I try to reassure him. Social distance, wash your hands, wear a mask, stay away from crowds.

Three days later, he’s back for a follow-up. My intake nurse asks if he’s been around crowds. 

He says he went to a wedding in a big park. He wore a mask. He socially distanced. He hugged the bride.

The nurse calls me in.

I ask, How many people were there?

About 300.

Did the bride hug everyone else.

I think so.

Assuming three percent had COVID-19, she hugged nine people with the plague. 

I tried to back away. But I didn’t want to be a buzz killer.

Do you know what herd immunity is? This wasn’t that. This was herd stupidity. 

Did you hear what the WHO General Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last Monday. I’ll read it to you: “We all want this to be over. We all want to get on with our lives. But the hard reality is this is not even close to being over. Although many countries have made some progress, globally the pandemic is actually speeding up.”

Here’s what this means for the U.S. What Dr. Fauci told the Senate Health Committee last Tuesday. I’ll read it to you: “What was thought to be unimaginable turns out to be the reality we’re facing right now…. We are now having 40,000-plus new cases a day. I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around.”

For Manhattan Beach this means 33 new COVID-19 cases in the last seven days. (June 29 to July 5). Hermosa had 19. Redondo had 44. 

Two, maybe three will die. How do we know that? Because in the three Beach Cities 489 people have had COVID-19 and 15 of them are dead. That’s three percent of detected cases, on the button. 

Have you noticed that there is now a longer delay to get COVID test results back? That’s because more people are testing and the test facilities are overwhelmed. What do you think the delay will do to our ability to contact those who test positive?

Assume just three people at the wedding were positive. Assume they infected 10 percent of the attendees. Let’s further assume it took five days to get the COVID test results that were done within 24 hours of the wedding for all attendees. How many other people did those 30 infected people come in contact with?

You do the math.

But eventually, all pandemics end, right?

Sure. 

In medicine we have a saying that all bleeding stops….sometimes when the person has bled to death.

Now you need to leave my office, and don’t come back for two weeks.

Oh yeah, don’t forget to quarantine ER

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