Four Long Years

A look back to four years ago:  

From Craig Spencer, MD MPH, 

Four years ago today, I walked into the apocalypse.
Crossing the line in the ER felt like entering a whole other world.
Frenetic alarms.
Patients strewn about, struggling to breathe.
Too few staff. Too many deaths.
Covid was everything.
It had completely taken over our ER.
Covid inundated NYC a week prior. 
And many of our staff fell ill.
Especially the nurses.
We had only a fraction of those we needed.
Too few to notice when the oxygen tanks under patients' beds ran out.
So we did something kinda insane.
Actually unbelievable.
We ran tubing from the oxygen outlets on the wall
up, up, up
then through the ceiling
and then dangled it down to the middle of the ER
All over the ER
So everyone could get a reliable oxygen supply
And not suffocate when their tank ran out
It saved lives.
A lot.
A lot.
But not all
"Hey, who has the guy in room 7?
--"Oh, me"
"He's dead"
Keep going.
Others would die the same shift.
Hundred died that day in NYC from Covid
The worse was still in front of us
A week later, 815 died. In one city.
Morgues were over capacity.
Walk by trucks set up outside the hospital for the overflow.
More staff fell ill.
They couldn't get tested. Still.
Four years ago, we had no idea what would happen next.
How long it would last
Or who would be next
Would it be as bad in Chicago?
LA?
Detroit?
Phoenix, Cheyenne, or Pensacola?
We know how it played out now
We knew nearly nothing then
We didn't know
Today, many will tell you we overreacted then
But you'll never hear that from someone, anyone who worked in the hospital then
Covid scarred a generation of healthcare workers
Many watched their colleagues suffer.
Struggle to breathe.
Then die.
Mistakes were made.
Politics became paramount.
We all paid the price.
But until the day I die
No one can tell me...
The things I saw
The things we
All those on the frontline
Witnessed and endured
Were not real
Were not the worst things we will
EVER see
The past is being rewritten
But none of us who witnessed those early days can scrub our memories of the pain and horror
We'll never forget finding young, otherwise healthy people dead in a chair
And we'll never forget our colleagues who died
You might...
But we won't.

Engineer David Elfstrom remembers the massive fuck-up from the WHO:

Three years ago on this day ASHRAE stated that Airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is significant.

Today, WHO finally released a model of Covid is Airborne risk by experts in the field. 

Four years ago on this day WHO said: "Fact: Covid is NOT airborne." Today, WHO finally released a model of Covid Is Airborne risk by experts in the field that warned of airborne even earlier, but were shut out.

This document has been a long time coming. As described by Prof. Jose-Luis Jiminez, Lidia Morawska, co-chair of the group that published the new WHO airborne model, was previously cut off by John Conly when making the case that Covid is Airborne to WHO. 

At this point we should just name March 28 to be Lidia Morawska Day. Here's another important publication released today:

From Prof. Jose-Luis Jiminez: New paper in Science Magazine: "Mandating Indoor Air Quality for Public Buildings" - Explaining current status of indoor air quality standards (in short: bad or non-existent), the huge health benefits that would arise from them and proposing a path forward. . . . "We propose that Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) standards be mandatory for public spaces. For the past two decades, scientists have called for national IAQ standards and laws to be established, but so far, little action has been taken. This contrasts sharply with outdoor air, for which quality is regulated and monitored and compliance with regulations is enforced. . . . And here is a CIRESnews press release explaining the article in plain language. (PDF of the paper here.)

And medical researcher Professor Brendan Crabb also promoted this new publication: 

This from WHO and CERN, together with the landmark publication yesterday on mandating indoor air quality standards, is game-changing both for the here and now and for the pandemic preparedness where it is the lowest hanging fruit for protection. The Pandemic Accord process should not ignore it. 

By and large, the pandemic was not, and is not, treated as an airborne disease. This mattered a great deal. Everything from inadequate personal protection of those on the front-line, to little attention to poor ventilation in aged-care, schools, daycare centers, restaurants, businesses and even our homes. We are here now, and have to look forward to how this breakthrough consensus position can be used effectively and practical solutions adopted with a sense of urgency. Although no longer an emergency, we are still in a pandemic according to WHO, having just experienced another very large wave, where the chronic impacts are especially concerning. So, urgency to implement smart airborne control strategies for respiratory pathogens now, Covid-19 yes, but also flu, RSV, tuberculosis and more. And also, because we are right now discussing globally how we nations will agree in a binding way to do things much better next time. While there's quite rightly a primary focus in the Pandemic Accord and related IHR process on sharing countermeasure tools and knowledge, it would be a missed opportunity to not set the record straight and agree on treating the next respiratory pandemic as airborne transmitted. If we fail to do this, whatever else is agreed on, we will be responding with one hand tied behind our back.

And tern points out,

Ten things about Covid you can hide and ten things you can't:
1. You can hide covid cases in the sense of reducing the number of tests you do or how many can be reported.
2. You can hide information about the harm that covid infections do.
3. You can hide information about how many people are being hospitalised by Covid infections. 
4. You can hide the connection between covid infections and secondary problems like pneumonia or heart attacks.
5. You can hide information about how infections occur.
6. You can hide information about how to prevent infections.
7. You can hide that covid is airborne.
8. You can hide how many people are suffering from Long Covid.
9. You can hide information about the harm covid infections do to children.
10. You can hide how many people are dying from covid infections.
11. You can even hide the number of children dying from covid infections. 
1. But you can't hide how many people are missing work due to sickness now.
2. And you can't hide how many kids are missing school.
3. And you can't hide the number of people leaving the workforce due to disability.
4. And you can't hide the number of children dying.
5. And you can't hide the hit taken by the economy.
6. And you can't hide how many people are dying. 
7. And you can't hide all the cancelled events.
8. And you can't hide the pressure on healthcare that occurs with every covid infection wave.
9. And you can't hide the mountain of research.
10. And you can't hide reality.