Holsworth: May 6, 2020, Virginia Covid-19 Update
Editor’s note: Bearing Drift is grateful to Dr. Bob Holsworth for permission to share his daily Virginia coronavirus updates. For more, follow him on Facebook.
MAY 6, COVID-19, UPDATE
SLOW BURN ON HOSPITALIZATIONS; NEW FACES IN AMERICAN MEDICINE
There was a reporting problems today with the Virginia Department of Health data and these have yet to be posted as of 6:15 this evening- will update when the information arrives. We do have hospitalization numbers from the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association.
1. NEW HIGH IN HOSPITALIZATIONS
I have been surprised by official comments and media reports that have suggested hospitalizations have peaked and are declining.
I wish this was so.
The data show something different. Hospitalizations have been on an extended, multi-week plateau with no real evidence of consistent decline or, thankfully, consistent surge.
There has been some reduction in the severity of hospitalizations with patients in ICUs and on ventilators. But the number of hospitalizations and admissions has not declined.
In fact, this morning there are more people in Virginia hospitals with COVID-19 than at any other time in the epidemic.
The Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association (VHHA) reported that there were 215 estimated new hospital admissions and 117 discharges, bringing the number of patients hospitalized from 1496 to 1594.
Since VHHA began its reports on April 8, the number of patients in hospitals have ranged from 1288 to 1566. It’s a slow, perhaps controlled, burn, but it’s not a decline.
Here are the number of patients in ICUs and on ventilators and the range since April 8.
Patients in ICUs: 396 (348-469)
Patients on Vents 192 (189-303)
2. THE NEW FACES OF AMERICAN MEDICINE
Watching the front-line doctors, cutting edge medical researchers and public health experts from the country’s leading institutions who are regularly interviewed on television, I have been struck by how much the face of American medicine has changed.
First, women and minorities are more numerous and occupy more prominent roles than you would have seen 20 or even 10 years ago. For example, Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, a young viral immunologist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is directing the effort to develop one of the leading candidates for a COVID-19 vaccine (I won’t brag too much on the fact that she’s a Chapel Hill grad).
Second, American medicine has benefited tremendously from attracting talented physicians and researchers from across the globe. Dr. Carlos Del Rio and Dr. Babafemi Taiwo are two of the country’s leading antiviral researchers who have been directing the Remsdisivir trials at Emory University and Northwestern University respectively. Dr. Del Rio received his initial medical training in Mexico and Dr. Taiwo in Nigeria.
I have personally seen this transformation over the years at the VCU medical campus with both the student body and the faculty. The capacity of our nation’s medical research programs to tap all segments of the population and the entire globe for talent is a cause for genuine optimism.
