White House coronavirus expert Dr Anthony Fauci told Mark Zuckerberg in an interview yesterday that abandoned colleges and hotels could be used as hospitals for patients infected with COVID-19.
Yesterday, Zuckerberg held and interview on Facebook Live with Dr Fauci, one of America’s top immunologists, who is currently advising the Trump Administration on its response to the killer virus.
Zuckerberg asked Dr Fauci whether existing facilities, like hotels, may have to be repurposed to house patients fighting the disease.
‘We need to think about that seriously Mark and prepare for it,’ Dr Fauci said.
He also said that colleges could be used as hospitals, provided the students were not using them.
The virus specialist said that something that could be done ‘today’ to prepare, is to cancel elective surgeries, claiming they ‘chew up a lot of resources’ by using much-needed ‘beds, masks and personal protective equipment’.
Today, Dr Fauci pushed on the issue, saying: ‘One of the things that can be done is certainly not the total solution to the problem is to delay, if not cancel, anything that’s elective.
‘Any medical or surgical procedures that need to be done on an elective basis should not be done in anticipation of the fact that beds and equipment that you would use, even in an elective situation should be used for people who really need it.
‘Even though you don’t see it now in certain locations, pretty soon there’s a stress on everyone’s system and that’s one of the things that can be done.’
Seeking to assure viewers that there was enough equipment, for now, Dr Fauci said in the Zuckerberg interview: ‘Right now we have a strategic stockpile that has ventilators and tens of millions of face masks.’
Click here to read more.
SOURCE: Daily Mail, Ryan Fahey
BCNN1 WP 