The crucial message of a doctor in New York to Quebecers

After a night working in the emergency room of a New York hospital, a doctor had a message for Quebecers.

“You have the extraordinary chance to be behind in the epidemic. You have a little time, ”said Dr. Julien J. Cavanagh, in an interview with Paul Larocque, on Saturday, on LCN.

“If you confine yourself now, in a fortnight you will have 200 dead in Quebec. If your containment is effective, if you do it really well and seriously, if you only go out once a week to run errands, you have the historic chance of containing the spread, ”added the doctor who practices in New York. .

New York state has emerged as the epicenter of the outbreak in the United States, with nearly 45,000 cases and more than 500 deaths on Friday, numbers that are rapidly changing.

“Two weeks ago, we had 2 patients [atteints de la COVID-19], out of all three partner hospitals where I work, to date, there are 480, ”said Dr Julien J. Cavanagh.

“It is a situation, truly, of health disaster that we are experiencing in New York,” explained Dr Cavanagh. “It’s a show that I never thought I’d know in my career,” he added.

Rationed protective equipment, tests reserved for the most serious patients: in New York, the epicenter of the epidemic which is now hitting the United States head-on, some caregivers confide in their growing fear of the coronavirus, while the sick are multiplying in their ranks.

“The equipment is starting to run out. We are forced to reuse disposable materials, such as N-95 masks, eye protection, gowns, ”admitted the doctor.

According to the estimates of the New York authorities, it would be necessary to wait another three weeks before the peak of the epidemic in the metropolis.

“We are aware that we will have to make choices. We are already thinking about protocols to carefully select the patients who will have the best chance of being cured. And that is something in modern medicine that you don’t expect, ”continued Dr Cavanagh.

“We went from an extremely sophisticated, hyperspecialized medicine, to a situation of disaster, health catastrophe”, he concluded.

– With information from Agence France-Presse

Watch the full interview with Dr. Julien J. Cavanagh in the video above.

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