Reassuring and informative video

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Dr. David Price of Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City shares information in a Mar. 22 Zoom call with family and friends on empowering and protecting families during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He is an ICU specialist - very FACTUAL information that you can use today.

vimeo.com...

So what does he say?

originally posted by: FyreByrd
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Dr. David Price of Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City shares information in a Mar. 22 Zoom call with family and friends on empowering and protecting families during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He is an ICU specialist - very FACTUAL information that you can use today.

vimeo.com...

Are you able to summarize the video for us, please?

a reply to: FyreByrd

That was reassuring. Thanks

a reply to: FyreByrd

So he says “be a hand nazi” ..... “wash your hands and you will NOT get this disease.”

He is saying only touch transfers it??? I’m confused...

So he is a doctor, or what?

I skipped through halfway and 2/3rds into the video where he's talking about how the virus spreads and how easy it is to not get it and found it very informative. He's saying it's like any other bug, it's easy to avoid, this is how you'd get it, and this is how not to get it. He works on covid patients daily.

You get it by touching a droplet of it that is on something and then your face. Basically just dont touch things in public, don't touch your face, and wash or sanitize your hands alot.

Dr. Price appears to be legit. As of earlier today there was a page on the Weill Cornell directory with all of his contact information. It appears to have been pulled, and though it is pure speculation on my part, I imagine it is so he does not get slammed with requests for information. Again, speculation, but I imagine as an ICU doctor (his claim in the video) they want to be able to contact him when they need him.

He does appear in a listing of Weill Cornell fellows at this link: Second Year Fellows (2016-2019)

He claims to be an ICU doctor and outlines what his responsibility would be in the chain of treatment of a COVID-19 patient. Essentially, he would be the person who determines if a patient needs to be placed on a ventilator, and for how long.

In no particular order, his major points in the video (I'm doing this from memory so I may miss some details):
1) Transmission is contact-based. Someone asked a question specifically if it is droplet-based, and he said yes, it is droplet based. What that means is that the way someone gets infected with the virus and then contracts the disease is by getting a droplet on their skin - likely their hands - then touching their face. The virus enters through mouth, nasal passages, or eyes, and begins infecting the new host. This is why he repeatedly tells his audience to become very vigilant about sanitizing their hands (yes he uses the term "Hand Nazi".) He also suggests wearing a mask - not because it will do anything to stop the virus, but wearing a mask is a mnemonic to remind you not to touch your face. He does say that in a small, enclosed area in close proximity with an infected patient it is possible to become infected, however, the vast majority of transmission is contact/droplet based.

2) There is only one age group showing near-0 infection: that is healthy children age 0-14 with no comorbidity. Even those children who do have co-morbidity appear to only get it in rare cases. (He cited a pediatric hospital of 300 patients where only 2% of those children contracted the disease.) He asserts that he spends much of his days treating people of ALL OTHER age groups. He cites 35 and 45 year olds with no co-morbidity requiring a ventilator, and elderly contracting the disease and recovering just fine. Point being: don't think you are immune just because your 40 and can run a couple miles.

3) He encourages people to use telehealth if they feel the symptoms of the disease. He does not recommend going to the hospital to be tested right away. He puts the line of going to the hospital at feeling short of breath in any capacity. Restated, if you have a fever, aches, dry cough, and you begin to feel short of breath, go to the hospital and be evaluated. Otherwise, continue staying at home.

4) You can go outside for a walk or a run and be safe, even in the city, even in New York. Just follow the rules - sanitize your hands, stay 6 feet apart. If you touch something such as a door knob or an elevator button, do not touch your face until you sanitize your hands. Again, wear a mask to remind yourself of this. Reduce your social circles during this pandemic. Observe social distancing, sanitize your hands, don't touch your face.

5) Masks. Dust masks and homemade masks are not stopping the disease. The only thing that will is an N95 or better grade mask. BUT: you don't need to rush out and try to find one. PLEASE leave them for the health care providers that need them. He says the only time even the healthcare providers are using the N95 masks are when they are performing operations with COVID-19 patients that will generate spittle/droplets. Other than that, they are not using anything other than normal surgical masks and they are being careful about sanitizing.

6) There is one group that is getting hit very hard: healthcare providers who do not take appropriate precautions (including providers who, early on, did not know what they were dealing with.) The front lines of healthcare are requiring extreme diligence in order to get through this without getting sick themselves.

7) He takes about 30 minutes of questions from participants in the Zoom call. I am not going to type them all out but they range from how to protect nurses (it seems a number of the audience are medical professionals), to whether a mother can pass the disease to her unborn child (likely no), and whether you should sanitize delivered grocery bags (probably not necessary, but certainly don't high-five the delivery man.)

I encourage you to watch the entire video if you can. It is neither alarmist fear-mongering nor minimizing-nothing-burgering. (Is that a word?) He seems to give it a balanced, fair look from a person that at least on the surface appears to be a legitimate professional in the midst of this.

a reply to: PrairieShepherd

Thank you for taking the time to summarize it.