New York emergency room Doctor Calvin Sun has been on the frontlines against Wuhan coronavirus since the disease slammed the city in March.
During an interview with Fox Business Monday afternoon, Dr. Sun described the difference between then and now.
"It's night and day. They're [emergency rooms] empty. Volumes are down 60 percent at both of the emergency rooms I worked in two different boroughs, one in Queens and one in Brooklyn," Sun said. "I'm not working today. I'm just doing interviews because they're cutting our shifts and some overtime and while this is encouraging this is the effect of social distancing."
"This is just the emergency room. I can't speak on what's going on on the hospital floors upstairs, but yeah volumes are down and I've got very few shifts this week," he continued. "I have three later on this weekend at most and it was every other day if not every day for the first three weeks so, complete change."
NYC Emergency Room Doctor: "It's night and day. They're empty. Volumes are down 60% at both of the emergency rooms I worked in." pic.twitter.com/XwGPsJr2SC
— After the Bell (@AftertheBell) April 27, 2020
Meanwhile, doctors outside of New York are calling for restrictions to be lifted as other health consequences of stay-at-home orders come to fruition.
‘Let’s stop underemphasizing empirical evidence while instead doubling down on hypothetical models. Facts matter.’
That’s Scott Atlas, former chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University, making his case for ending coronavirus lockdowns in favor of a targeted approach to getting the U.S. back on its feet.
“Americans are now desperate for sensible policy makers who have the courage to ignore the panic and rely on facts,” Atlas wrote in a widely read piece for The Hill last week. “Leaders must examine accumulated data to see what has actually happened, rather than keep emphasizing hypothetical projections; combine that empirical evidence with fundamental principles of biology established for decades; and then thoughtfully restore the country to function.”
In addition, Atlas says that, because of such “hypothetical projections,” patients in need of other medical care, such as those suffering from cancer and heart conditions, are being ignored.
"People are dying to accommodate ‘potential’ COVID-19 patients and for fear of spreading the disease,” he wrote. “Most states and many hospitals abruptly stopped ‘nonessential’ procedures and surgery. That prevented diagnoses of life-threatening diseases, like cancer screening, biopsies of tumors now undiscovered and potentially deadly brain aneurysms.”
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