My Virtual Reading Room

A not-directly COVID link, to start:

Quiz: How Much Do You Know About Flo? (a fun quiz and article)

May 12 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing.

If Nightingale were alive today, she would probably say, "What have you done to my photograph?" But after taking a look around at what's happening in the world, her next words might very well be, "I told you so."

In a move that foreshadowed social distancing, Florence Nightingale was first to recommend separating patients by at least 6 feet—a distance that prevented them from being able to touch each other.

And even before germ theory was widely accepted, Nightingale urged what is now our biggest weapon against viral transmission. In 1859, she wrote in Notes on Nursing: "Every nurse ought to wash her hands very frequently throughout the day." In an era when few effective drugs or other treatments were available, cleanliness and hygiene were, in her view, fundamental to the care of the sick.

She understood the risk to nurses' health posed by the care of infected patients. Observing that the mortality rate of hospital nurses was higher than that of the general population, Nightingale advocated strongly for protecting these nurses from fever and contagion. "Money cannot replace...the loss of a well-trained nurse by preventable disease," she wrote in her Notes on Hospitals (1863).

This year in London, a large temporary hospital erected for the care of overflow COVID-19 patients was named for Nightingale, a move that was seen as fitting considering Nightingale's legacy as a data science pioneer. Her use of statistics and data to track outbreaks of disease and help hospitals manage their resources was prescient in light of the work being done by hospital epidemiologists to tackle the public health challenge that we face today.

COVID-19: German Doctors' Naked Protest Over PPE Shortages
(do take a look at the photos, and don't worry, it's SFW ;))

We're used to hearing how well Germany has handled COVID-19 through widespread testing and other measures. However, Germany has also experienced PPE shortages in practices, hospitals, and care homes.

To draw attention to this, German GPs launched an online campaign in which they pose naked in their workplace.

German Physician Explains His Alternative Ventilation Strategy for COVID-19

The difference, Groeneveld says, between Gattinoni's approach, detailed in a recent JAMA editorial, and his own is that Groeneveld believes passive ventilation is the best course of treatment for all patients, even ARDS-like type H.

For Covid-19 Patients: "Make it Matter"

The last few weeks have seemed surreal, apocalyptic, even disastrous. Many in healthcare have spent time rushing around yet waiting for a time when things could improve, when the nightmare might be over, or when normalcy could return.

It hasn't.

But this week I read a story I must repeat...

Palliative Care in the Time of COVID: A Visual Essay (it's very good, do take a look)

Internal US Document Foresees Surge of Coronavirus Deaths, NY Times Says

NEW YORK (Reuters) - An internal U.S. government document projects a surge in coronavirus cases and a sharp rise in daily deaths by June 1, the New York Times reported on Monday, even as President Donald Trump urged states to lift restrictions to quell the pandemic.

The document, based on modeling by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, projects that COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, will kill 3,000 Americans a day by the end of May, the Times said, up from a current daily toll that a Reuters tally places at around 2,000.