COVID-19 Pandemic Thought Experiment - When to re-institute Social Distancing??

Posted by Dike Drummond MD

release-covid19-beast-when-to-reinstitute-social-distancing-to-bend-the-curve-physician-burnout-opt150WOnce we have released the beast of Coronavirus, under what circumstances would you expect local/state/federal officials to re-institute social distancing??

Governors all over the USA are relaxing social distancing restrictions and definitions of what is and is not an essential business. The biggest fear is reigniting the pandemic and flooding the local healthcare system with critically ill patients.

Here is a THOUGHT EXPERIMENT for you:

Under what conditions would you re-institute social distancing and other lock down rules and regulations?

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

Hello, Dr. Dike Drummond here from TheHappyMD.com

Let me bring you an observation from the cutting edge of my network about things that are going on in this COVID-19 pandemic of 2020.

We've released the cap, the social distancing cap, the bend the curve cap on how we're going to handle population and public health influence on bending the curve of the epidemic. We've got protests on different Governor's Mansion, porches, and we've got people out in public getting haircuts and bowling alleys to release the beast.

And the question is, at what point in time, will we cross a threshold where the public might want us to re-institute social distancing measures?

Is it going to be a number on a nightly news cast? Is going to be the slope of a curve of an arc of the impact of the epidemic. I don't think so.

Because I think once we reopen society, there's a certain percentage of people who are willing to accept a 1 - 3% case mortality rate as acceptable

  • As long as we don't damage the economy
  • As long as it doesn't kill their grandma

And what I'm going to say is that I think the thing that would potentially put the cap back on and re-institute social distancing is if we completely overload the emergency capacity of your local hospital.

  • So if you have a heart attack, you can't get in because it's full.
  • If you have cancer, you can't get treatment because it's full of COVID positive patients.
  • And then it elevates from not just a public health emergency
  • It's a public SAFETY emergency!

And maybe then your local government, your state government, the National Guard for heaven's sakes, would come Come back in and reinforce social distancing so that we can unload the health system so it doesn't extend itself into a public safety crisis.

So conduct this thought experiment for yourself:

Under what measures Do you think the local politicians in your area would re institute social distancing.

Once they've popped the lid on this beast?

Ask yourself that, leave a comment down below. That's where I'm coming from.

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PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT:

Under what conditions would  you recommend re-institution of social distancing measures?

Would you feel any different if your grandma died after the relaxation of social distancing and an innocent visit to church/picnic/political rally/bowling alley/tatoo parlor/hair dressor?

 

Tags: Physician Burnout, Pandemic