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. @GovernorVA: Please do more to prepare #Virginia for the novel #coronavirus surge we expect from May through early July.
We need a greater amount of capacity of ICU beds, ventilators, PPE, medical staff.
We need more assistance to those w/o funds for rent, food, medicine.
1/x
We need a greater amount of capacity of ICU beds, ventilators, PPE, medical staff.
We need more assistance to those w/o funds for rent, food, medicine.
1/x
As a doctor I'm sure you can appreciate the gravity of the pandemic we are facing as a state.
Your background gives you insight and a network of medical professionals that many other governors do not have.
Please leverage every resource possible. We need to be proactive.
2/x
Your background gives you insight and a network of medical professionals that many other governors do not have.
Please leverage every resource possible. We need to be proactive.
2/x
Right now most of #Virginia is behind the curve, with no known concrete plans in place to be able to provide the additional resources necessary.
With the Federal govt failing to provide sufficient supplies you should do all you can to get supplies sourced wherever possible.
3/x
With the Federal govt failing to provide sufficient supplies you should do all you can to get supplies sourced wherever possible.
3/x
In NJ and NY their governors put executive orders in place that allows their govts to seize supplies as needed. We need that authority here and we need it now. Many have stockpiled #PPE they don't need. Stores continue to sell them to those who aren't first line responders.
4/x
4/x
Additionally, we should, as a state, provide grants and other assistance to companies converting manufacturing capacity to help provide #PPE, ventilators (even if from retrofitted BiPAPs) and other crucial live saving equipment.
5/x
5/x
We also need to designate more vacant commercial property, hotels, schools and other locations to be makeshift hospitals.
We cannot hope to have such facilities outside in tents. The #Virginia summer is brutally unforgiving. Heat+humidity will exacerbate respiratory issues.
6/x
We cannot hope to have such facilities outside in tents. The #Virginia summer is brutally unforgiving. Heat+humidity will exacerbate respiratory issues.
6/x
As you know, the stay at home order only slows the pandemic, but we are still facing a crisis that will overwhelm our hospital capacity without significant expansion.
Source: https://www.covidactnow.org/us/va
7/x
Source: https://www.covidactnow.org/us/va
7/x
Finally, we need more qualified medical professionals: paramedics, nurses and doctors.
We can reasonably infer that many on the front lines will be sickened or even die.
That means we need to try to bring some out of retirement and also defy the Fed govt on visas for DRs.
8/x
We can reasonably infer that many on the front lines will be sickened or even die.
That means we need to try to bring some out of retirement and also defy the Fed govt on visas for DRs.
8/x
The time is now to act with determination and haste.
Your order to stay at home has helped to afford us the opportunity to maximize our preparedness, but we still need to do more to bring greater capacity, testing, support and other resources online urgently.
9/x
Your order to stay at home has helped to afford us the opportunity to maximize our preparedness, but we still need to do more to bring greater capacity, testing, support and other resources online urgently.
9/x
For all of those whom are reading this thread, please RT as much as you can to spread the word far and wide.
Feel free to take from this thread to make one for your own state or another, similar one for #Virginia.
We're all in this together.
10/10
Feel free to take from this thread to make one for your own state or another, similar one for #Virginia.
We're all in this together.
10/10
