June 18, 2020

A pathologist's urgent pandemic message to the public

"The events over the last couple of weeks have affected me deeply. Of course, I’m concerned about a novel virus that is infecting and killing people. But, I’m more distraught over the reaction of the people, the response of the state and federal...

"The events over the last couple of weeks have affected me deeply. Of course, I’m concerned about a novel virus that is infecting and killing people. But, I’m more distraught over the reaction of the people, the response of the state and federal governments, the blatant disregard of science/epidemiology, and the warnings of our physicians on the front lines.

Most of us will get this virus and be OK. But slowing it down is 100 percent vital. Why? Because our health care system has limited resources. We only have so many hospital beds in this country and, at last count, only 62,000 ventilators. If the forecasted numbers of infected Americans reach the projected peak in the millions, we will have no choice but to ration those resources. This means a physician will be tasked with choosing who gets a chance to live and who does not. This is the reality in other countries."

Michelle C. Hure is a dermatopathologist.

She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "A pathologist’s message to the public." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/03/a-pathologists-message-to-the-public.html)

This episode is brought to you by Saykara (https://www.saykara.com/), the first voice-powered ambient virtual assistant.