I enjoyed reading all 8 pages (and counting) of this thread.... I am glad to hear that everyone is well and doing what they can to get by given the current state of things. I just wanted to offer a bit of perspective from my point of view on this God-awful mess that hopefully some of you will consider going forward...
I have been a firefighter and paramedic in South Florida for over 20 years, and I work for one of the hardest impacted cities in the county... Anyone who has done this job long enough will affirm that every time you think you have seen it all, some new event (like this one) occurs and you reset your perspective once again. I was relatively new on the job through the hysteria of the months following 9/11, and I can't even remember the number of hurricanes that I have worked through since. There is always something to deal with... I have seen humanity at its worst and it's best, but this situation is different... Actually surreal... Some folks are concerned while others are in complete denial. And then there are those in complete panic mode... I have seen some acts of extreme generosity within the community while at the same time some folks are still hoarding basic necessities from the supermarkets....
I think the one thing that makes this event so unique is that we have little to no control over it... At least for now.... Even through the worst disasters I have experienced, we had a plan... We had training... We had resources... We could prepare... We had an idea of what to expect going forward... Not with this virus, and that is what concerns me the most....This virus is not what they told us, and that is not meant to assess blame. Blame and politicization is a waste of time and energy right now... The most brilliant medical minds and foremost experts in the world have made incorrect assessments from Day-1, and that is likely to continue as this evolves until we learn more about it. Unfortunately, the medical experts are being drawn into the politicization of this whether they like it or not.... There is an enormous amount of pressure being applied by the politicians at all levels of government to provide answers that we just don't have. Our own medical directors here covering several different municipalities have wavered back and forth on policies and directives since this began. We are making this up as we go, and as someone with a front-row seat, that is hardly reassuring.
The controversies over the mortality rates or whether or not this virus is no different than any other "flu-like" virus we have had to deal with is irrelevant at this point. Here's what I do know from my own observations in treating patients and what I want to pass on for your consideration... There are two key variables that make this virus so different: The first being that is seems to be much more contagious and viable compared to other flu-like viruses. Secondly, and most significantly, there is no consistent pattern as to what sort of patient will be affected with the worst symptoms. Statistically, it still seems that those over the age of 65, especially with underlying medical conditions seem to be affected the worst. However, we are also seeing this concerning anomaly with that one patient who is a young, strong, healthy, patient that does not fit this high-risk criteria, who gets extremely ill and even dies. This is what concerns me the most.... We are seeing too many of these young, otherwise healthy patients getting very sick. We still don't know why this is occurring, and that is why I implore all of you to please take this seriously regardless of how low the actual odds are of getting seriously ill, or what the true mortality rate is.
My crew alone has personally treated at least a hundred patients with symptoms that fit the Covid-19 criteria since early March. We were previously only transporting those patients to the hospitals who were confirmed positive. Non-confirmed cases were instructed to self-treat at home because we could not risk overwhelming the hospitals. We are at the point now where anyone who wants a test, symptomatic or not, can go to one of many drive-thru testing facilities and get tested. In our tri-county area, about 1 in 10 are testing positive for the virus to date... I pray this number decreases drastically as more people get tested.
As a final thought, I just finished up my last shift treating a previously healthy, father of 2 in his 40's with no known underlying health issues. He was struggling to breath after 9 days of self-treatment at home. His oxygen saturation levels were horrible and he was likely to be headed to the ICU for intubation and a ventilator.... As we wheeled him out on the stretcher his wife was sobbing and his young children were screaming and crying asking us if daddy was going to be okay... This is a part of the job that you NEVER get used to... Please follow the guidelines, take the necessary precautions, and take care of yourselves until we figure this thing out....! We all have lots of hunts ahead of us...!
.....welcome to the club 
