Frank W Maletz MD FACS
Monday 16 March 2020
12 MacKinnon Place
East Lyme
( 860 ) 912 9496
Connecticut 06333 – 1533
USA
Co Founder HEALTHspital Foundation CT
FROM :
Frank W Maletz MD FACS
Pamela A Maletz RN
( 860 ) 912 9493
Honghui Feng MD
fenghonghui@yahoo.com
( 860 ) 514 2873
Saihuan Zeng RN MSN
( 860 ) 885 9888
TO WHOM :
SOME FACTS and they are undisputed :
✱COVID 19 virus epicentered first in Wuhan province China and now in Lombardy region Italy is a pandemic ( WHO ) .
✱Its spread has been rapid and overwhelming in hotspots .
✱It is more virulent , morbid in selected , vulnerable populations , and with varying but more lethality than influenza viruses .
✱Roche , last Friday , received FDA approval to mass produce its testing kit ( up to now in the US , approximately 15,000 people have been tested – 400,000 will be available as soon as this week with ramped up production of 1.5 million tests per month thereafter ) – we will then begin to know what , up to now , we have not known definitely .
✱No vaccine or antiviral cocktail is curative – YET .
✱Experience has taught us isolation and social distancing protocols – with sanitation / hygiene/ precautionary principles .
✱Healthcare workers / providers must be protected , nourished , rested , and safe in order to function optimally at the front lines .
✱Viruses are NOT independent “ life forms “ – they are infecting agents with vectors ( surfaces , fomites , contact , transmission routes , carriers ) and hosts ( “ the infected “ , animals , humans ) . Viruses mutate much faster than the pace of human immune accommodations and MUCH , MUCH faster than mass socio – cultural behaviors and “ control mechanisms !
The President / VP / NIH / CDC-P / FDA / and academic and private foundations and independent expertise made pronouncements at 1530 today / updates / recommendations . This is emerging , unfolding , morphing , and mobilization with momentum is demonstrable .
In independent conversations today , an additional resource is available in SE CT ! Dr Honghui Feng and his wife Saihuan Zeng have been in direct communication with friends and family in Wuhan . There are also a number of their colleagues , Pfizer research scientists in our area with similar direct knowledge of what lessons / direct experiences have been encountered / learned in China during the past four months .
In addition HEALTHspital Foundation CT has joined with the Feng – Zeng team to propose that a database / reservoir of retired nurses , APRN s , physicians , physician assistants , and community healthcare workers and caregivers be assembled ASAP to FIRST locate those able to assist patients , clinics , testing centers , and hospitals if numbers climb AND SECOND to be provided training from BEST / current / authoritative sources NOW . A regional effort is pro active and pre emptive to integrate knowledgeable capacity to internetwork with existing institutions who may , in the near future , become overwhelmed with the actual infected or the presenting sick whose differential diagnosis includes COVID 19 .
We are part of a Community poised to help . Integrate , consolidate , coordinate , and educate us – then deploy us to augment the troops now doing front line duty .
SUGGESTIONS / OFFERS :
☯Hygiene / Surface fomite mitigation
-Contact precautions – anything touched : door handles , steering wheels , entry glass windows in establishments , food counters – cleansed after each contact ( soap and water , Purell or similar , hypochlorite / bleach or similar )
☯Eliminate hand shake , hand fist bumps , hugs , and ELBOW touch ( the olecranon is 3 – 4 INCHES from the elbow crease into which we have been instructing people to cough , sneeze , hack , expectorate , hocker – best approach is social distancing – if must touch another human , suggest facing in opposite directions and touching the heels of shoes .
☯The panic and herd mentality / hysteria in populations makes no sense : for example , why has there been a frantic run ( with , by the way , crowds of people in one place ) on red meat , frozen foods , acetaminophen ( fever reducers to eliminate health providers one clinical sign of possible infection – a fever ) , toilet paper ( this virus is NOT GI , diarrhea producing ) , milk and dairy products ( these are inflammatory in themselves ) . We could understand if there had been runs on Vitamin C and other immune boosting nutriceuticals , fresh vegetables and fruits , and bags for proper disposal of contaminated waste materials like tissues , gloves , and face masks . Social distancing is a given – individual hygiene and immune integrity is not being sufficiently communicated to the masses .
☯The CDC-P website is robust and currently updated everyday – COMMUNICATIONS are key to success – local hospitals should be the coordinating center / node for translating “ real time “ , “ at the point of care “ information and BEST intelligence to the local community – social media outlets should THEN take this intelligence and transmit it – NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND – which creates mass hysteria and reactivity – there is “ wisdom in crowds “ which should not be ignored BUT it should be “ real “ wisdom
☯Lessons have been learned in mass casualty , climate catastrophes , and infectious outbreaks , epidemics , and pandemics in the past – these are random , cataclysmic social disruptors – we will face more – full appreciation and knowledge , solutions and cures will be unfolding as experience grows – therefore , accommodations must be made as wisdom progresses
-first awareness of problem existing ——–> dissemination of actionable , pragmatic , sensible information ( COMMUNICATION channels )
-reasoned responses based on BEST intelligence with controls acknowledging levels of medical illiteracy in the general population – in this situation , the virus has mutated to control the vector and host – hosts need to outsmart the viral mechanisms and be implemented expeditiously to counter spread and pandemia
-potential providers of care must be identified , trained on BEST practices , collated , coordinated , and centrally deployable and deployed to furnish expertise and personpower to support frontline “ troops “ – these reinforcements are then available to backfill and fill in for the initial , primary team for them to rest , replenish , and re engage
☯This experience with COVID 19 will also be a learning experience in vivo as we progress . It should be treated as such . BEST practices will emerge . The initial chaos and uncertainty , ambiguity and turbulence will be managed . Immunity AND community will emerge intact . The virus will be vaccinatable as we did with HIV . Our goal is restoration of Health on a planetary scale . We can do this !!! It must be NOW and it must be integrated and it must be ALL IN .
Thank you !
Contact information is willingly provided – call upon us !
