Six-fingered on CNN Greece: War situation in hospitals, intubation anywhere
“War” characterizes the situation that prevails in hospitals and “prolongedly difficult”, the president of the Panhellenic Medical Association, Athanasios Exadaktylos, talking to CNN Greece. As he points out, in fact, the pressure is spreading across the country and is no longer limited to Northern Greece. In terms of Intensive Care Units, and notes that when the time comes to intubate patients, “They are intubated wherever they are, because there is no waiting time until the Intensive Care bed is found”.
“In hospitals we have a number of intubated patients, which is constantly constant, as well as the number of patients being treated constantly. We know that these numbers fall considerably after we see the number of cases decrease. And the pressure is spreading across the country now. It is not only in Northern Greece. The situation is one war situation and prolonged difficult. “This is the situation in hospitals,” he said.
Regarding the ICUs, the president of the Panhellenic Medical Association first clarifies that “everyone should know that people are not admitted to the Intensive Care Unit to prolong the death process. People are admitted to the ICU to reverse the death process. And this is something very important that we should all remember. ” However, he goes on to point out that “with coronavirus this is something very difficult and especially when we have the pressure we have at the moment. “
“People, when the time comes to be rescued, are intubated wherever they are, because there is no waiting time until the Intensive Care bed is found. “And because there is a difficulty in moving, because you realize that the beds, at the moment where they exist, may need someone to move.”
The second thing he reminds is that “Intensive care beds are not only needed by patients with Covid. Other patients need them, who also have their needs. “Consequently, with a finite number of beds, the intensive care units will be saturated at some point.”
“We have not reached this point, but in order not to, the dispersion must be limited.”
“Intensive care beds are not just the infrastructure”
Mr. Exadaktylos also adds that it exists lack of staff in the Intensive Care Units, typically saying: “I must also tell you that intensive care beds are not just the infrastructure. It is the staff, and the staff for the intensive care unit is in short supply everywhere, not only in our country. In other words, Germany, for example, in this phase has fewer intensive care beds than it had in the previous two phases because they left their system “.
And he emphasizes once again: “So we are in one tough situation, which only by limiting its dispersion will be reversed or if those over 60 or over 50 are vaccinated, where you want to set the limit. But there we do not want percentages of 75% or 80% or 82%. There we want 100% percentages. That is, those over 60 should all be vaccinated without exception. “If we had such a percentage, we would be like Portugal at the moment, which has a large spread of the virus, but has few people in the intensive care unit and few casualties every day.”
Regarding the course of the pandemic, he explains that “at the moment we are not on an upward trajectory, that is, the increases at the moment, the cases seem to be stabilized at the moment. Whether it will rise or fall, one can not predict. “Certainly when we see the fall we will say that we were at the top before.”
Omicron mutation: “The virus will mutate near us”
For Omicron mutation, notes that it has not yet been detected in our country, adding that “To get to the point where we are busy, we need a few weeks”. He observes: “In these weeks, Delta should be restricted and vaccinated our fellow human beings. This is crucial. “Because the greater the dispersion of the Delta when Omicron arrives, the faster Omicron or the other mutation will disperse.”
As Mr. Exadaktylos says, “for Omicron, however we are missing three key pieces of information: We do not know that it is more contagious than Delta, we have indications that it may be and if it happens it will prevail. We do not know if it causes a more severe disease or a milder disease and we do not know to what extent our vaccines protect against Omicron. So predictions about how Omicron will affect our reality, before we have this data, I think it is not appropriate to discuss them. That is, they do not help anyone in anything, because there is ambiguity “.
And he goes on to remind them four basic things that we must put into our daily lives: “But what is Omicron telling us? That the virus we have is mutating near us until they are vaccinated to a great extent worldwide, and only then will we turn it into a flu virus. So let’s prepare that we need to put a few things into our daily lives, so that we can live safely without suspending the functioning of society. And these are the use of the mask when we come in contact with other people, the avoidance of large social gatherings, personal hygiene and vaccination. These four things. “
In closing, and answering the question whether a lockdown is needed, he emphasizes: “It should to focus on measures that will lead to vaccination the unvaccinated, especially the older ones. That is the crucial point. We have no reason to shut down the whole society Currently, 75% of people are vaccinated. We would not have this discussion if we had satisfactory vaccination rates, especially in old age. So we have to focus on talking for weeks about the lockdown that no one wants to come and everyone is afraid that it will come and that we will not be vaccinated at the same time, it is a distraction of our attention “.