Monday open thread: A few words from a friend

As I mentioned in comments the other day, I don't have thousands of meat-friends. My circle of real-life friends is small, but it's stellar.

One of my friends—the only one with whom I've remained friends from my days at UCLA—is a doctor now, working in Arizona. He texted me yesterday asking me to spread this message:

Hey buddy...putting on my professional hat for a minute.

Consider posting on FB and imploring others to repost (PLEASE!!)

Child abuse peaks during times of social and economic stress. Please reach out and visit your friends with kids to have an adult conversation, give them a break, a chance to go shopping, get chores done,or just catch their breath. Shopping for them is nice but doesn't give em a break from the kids. (Maintain social distancing; stay away if you aren’t feeling well or if they aren’t.)

Play with the older kids in the yard or if possible the park, arts n crafts, feed the babies etc.

Encourage your friends and family to keep a schedule with their kids to help maintain some sanity.

A half hour here and there a few times a week (daily) and you just might help prevent a horrible situation!!!!

Prevent child abuse Washington probably has a page you could link to as does Child Help USA.

Be safe.

I then asked him how things were going in Arizona in regards to the virus. He replied with this:

Up to 152; 2 deaths.

Think we went up 15-20 identified cases per day last week. Would be more if we had enough testing sites.

A lot of offices are panicked and won't see anyone with cold symptoms. This is dumb for so many reasons; the drive up  centers only swab. We don't check temps, listen to lungs, check o2.

All of the mild cases may end up needlessly at ER or UC.

Which overloads those systems and exposes folks to many pathogens.

The folks I talk to for the most part have not been given specifics on how to treat their symptoms and hopefully reduce risk of pneumonia, resp distress etc. they are not even told what to be worried about.

DHS [Department of Health Services] advise seeing all resp cases in PM; use basic surgical masks. If adults no one else in the clinic with them, kids only one adult with them.

This way you can get a super deep clean overnight & protect the non-resp patients in the AM.

We've known about the increased possibility of domestic abuse due to people being confined in a house with their abuser. That will be another casualty caused as a result of our unpreparedness. And from what he texted, the lack of direction from authorities is adding to the chaos on the ground in treating this pandemic.

I will keep in contact with him to get his perspective. He has said it's kosher for me to post his texts. More to come.