>>9274634 PB

Anon says he cannot get procedure without pre-op covid testing.

Can confirm that this is an extremly common practice currently.

My hopsital is screening all higher exposure risk procedures (brochoscopy, oral surgery…),

along with random screening of the remainder. This is to get an idea of incidence in the asymptomatic

population. Some patients are refusing the NP swab, and most docs are doing the procedures anyway.

They are all using appropriate PPE.

Part of the reason is fear (media hype) and the unknown (new, incompletely characterized infectious disease). Patients

are scared to come into the hospital and we want to be able to assure them the risk is low. Docs buy the hype too. I

have been disappointed in the lack of rational thinking among "educated medical professionals".

Regarding the argument that we don't act this way around AIDS, ect; remember that we did initially. Patients treated like

lepers, providers wearing puffer suits, the works. We learned what was appropriate then and we will again. Learning curve.

The media hype and the shutdowns are out of proportion to the severity of the "pandemic", but the virus is real.

Some people are getting pretty sick. In my small hospital we have seen an uptick in admitted patients in the last

couple of weeks. Three have died FROM covid19 (not just WITH) since this started. Several have been on vents. And we are

treating positive patients with HCQ + az. Some have gotten convalescent plasma.

Anons be careful out there, especially if you are older or have other significant medical problems. Or if you are around

friends/family like that.