BUFFALO, N.Y. — In addition to the virus itself, another concern here locally is how hospitals are preparing for a possible overflow of patients.
"We only have so many beds. We only have so many ICU beds. We only have so many healthcare personnel," Dr. Thomas Russo said.
And that's precisely why Dr. Russo, an expert in infectious diseases, says the time spent educating and preparing people for the first coronavirus case here is crucial.
"It's this concept of containment, so try to control the number of cases where we don't have a large spike. That's what happened in Seattle, that's what's happened in Wuhan, China, that's what's happened in Italy, where they suddenly had so many cases that the health-care system was overwhelmed and they no longer have the capacity to optimally take care of all of the individuals that were sick, particularly those who were critically ill," Dr. Russo said.
Dr. Russo says if the worst-case scenario happens where there are too many sick people for hospitals to take care of, creativity may be the key.
"We may need to be creative. We may need to use spaces that previous haven't been used specifically for a given health-care purpose. We may need to talk to our colleagues in other hospitals, in other counties and vice versa if beds were available there to shift care to a different venue," he says.
Dr. Russo also talked about how it's important to take all of this seriously, even if you're a healthy young person.
"They'll be the vector of the virus and if they transmit it to those individuals, obviously. We could have a highly undesirable income, so it's really, really important for everyone to carefully think about their individual circumstances, their relative risks, and consequence for the loved ones around them," Dr. Russo said.
Dr. Russo says that hopefully with all the education and planning that's going on it'll pay off and smooth out the number of cases over time, so our health care system can handle it.
