The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) is doing press conferences about once a week with the latest facts from the front lines of coronavirus. You can find all recordings here. This is a great resource to get up to date information from doctors that are top in their field. As students interested in health professions, it is important for us to learn from this difficult situation so that we can enter the field informed and equipped!
Here are some main takeaways from the most recent press conference:
1. PPE and expansion of hospital beds:
- There has been general confusion regarding who should wear masks and why they should wear them. Yesterday, the CDC recommended wearing homemade cloth masks in public. The AAMC supports this recommendation. Masks help limit transmission from people who are infected. There is increasing evidence that many people are asymptomatic, but they can still spread the virus. Therefore, by implementing wide-spread masking, this can reduce the spread from asymptomatic people.
- Due to the shortage of PPE, hospitals are looking to new ways to reuse equipment. N-95 masks are being treated with hydrogen peroxide and returned to the provider. Tests show that the hydrogen peroxide is effective in disinfecting the mask. The main concern is that N-95 masks are only effective if they keep a seal. Through the disinfecting process, the mask may get misshaped and break the seal.
- There are efforts to expand hospital beds in non-hospital areas, such as hotels and dormitories. While this is doable, the difficulty comes when there is not a workforce to maintain the new beds. All hands are on deck to use the workforce efficiently. For example, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists are no longer needed in surgery. However, they have expert knowledge about ventilators and are very valuable in extreme COVID-19 cases.
2. Immigration related challenges:
- Suspension of visa processing and impacts on DACA have created barriers for thousands of practicing physicians
- Many physicians that are from out of the country work in underserved areas
- The following actions are necessary to mitigate these challenges:
- Expedite entry of the 4,200 physicians who matched for U.S. residency so they can begin on July 1
- Prioritize visa processing and extensions for physicians currently in the U.S.
- Maintain the DACA program
3. Challenges for vulnerable populations, specifically homeless:
- Following shelter-in-place guidelines is difficult for those that do not have a shelter; there are more than 560,000 homeless people in the U.S. on any given night
- Homeless individuals are at higher risk for infection due to exposed environment and higher rate of chronic illness
- City-wide efforts are in place to provide shelter spaces. For example, San Francisco allocated $5 million to provide trailers for the homeless.
- ** Housing is healthcare. It is important to improve communication regarding resources for the homeless; this will help the homeless population know how to get help.
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