By Dr. Stuart Weiss, FACEP, FAAP, CBCP

July 1, 2020
Today's topics: Its going to get worse before it gets better
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Its going to get worse before it gets better

Yesterday, there were 48,400 new cases of CoViD-19 in the United States. This is the fifth record breaking day in the past 8 days. North Carolina, Texas and Tennessee hit new daily records. 19 States have either paused reopening or rolled some phases backwards.

Its getting pretty bad in the Southern and Western states in the US. Several Republican run states that opened prior to reaching the White House opening criteria have now begun to shut down again. Arizona close its water parks, bars, gyms and movie theaters for 30 days. California has seen a recent explosion in cases after it eased restrictions, leading the governor close bars and halt indoor dining in much of the state. In Florida, hospitals in some areas are getting close to full and some hospitals in Miami have cancelled elective surgeries. Colorado has closed bars and restaurants.

In New York City, out of an abundance of caution, the mayor announced that NYC will not move to allow in-restaurant dining next week as previously planned.

All across the South and West, people are bracing for surges in cases secondary to the 4th of July Holiday. Some states are proactively closing beaches but some are still not.

Attitudes of American have been shifting about CoViD-19 as well. Up to 81% of Americans are now "very" or "somewhat" concerned about the pandemic. This is up especially among Republicans who are now showing an increasing amount of anxiety (70% are concerned, up from 60% a few weeks ago).

The 81% are right to be concerned. The models are looking grim if we don't change what we are doing. Unfortunately, we don't seem to want to change in many places. As I have been writing about, I am still in Nashville. Even though the mandatory mask rule went into effect three days ago, tonight, I walked around downtown and saw bars and restaurants filled with people without face coverings.

We are not doing well as a society in containing the infection. Many public health folks think we are running out of time to have any chance to contain it at all. We must do a better job as a whole or the projections of terrible death rates will in fact come to pass.

In spite of all of this, there is nothing coming from the White House. Apparently, they are still fighting internally on whether there should be daily briefings again. President Trump said in an interview today on Fox Business Network “I think we’re going to be very good with the coronavirus. I think that at some point, that’s going to sort of just disappear, I hope,” Unfortunately for all of us, its not going to just disappear. We have to work to make it disappear by promoting the idea that everyone wears a face covering to protect each other. Remember, when you wear a face covering, you protect me and when I wear one, I protect you. In order for this to work, and it does work and has worked in many other countries, we all have to participate.

I hope that we as Americans can learn to do this together and avoid the alternative, which is many more American deaths in the coming months.

Be well and practice good social distancing. Also, take care of yourself. The number of out of hospital cardiac arrests is way up. You can still have heart disease and diabetes and asthma during a pandemic. Don't skip regular checkups.

--Dr. Stu