The speed of vaccination development and rollout is also its greatest drawback. Distrust in the “newness” of the vaccine. But it wasn’t new. Research and development of mRNA vaccines have been in the works for the last 30 years.

Now a year and half into the pandemic, I’m done with the fear. We’ve incorporated social distancing, hand washing, testing, mask wearing and vaccination into our daily lives. Some of us have natural immunity through previous infection. Overall, we’ve been as responsible or irresponsible as we could be. Sure we could benefit from more Americans with immunity through either infection or vaccination. But with vaccine hesitancy – stupidity masked as self-determination and self-righteousness – apparently this is as good as it gets. Time to move on and live with it.

How pandemics end

There are two ways pandemics end: 1) Immunity through vaccination or infection and 2) apathy. I got vaccinated. Now I’ve reached the point of apathy. What else can we do? If there’s another surge, are our health departments going to shut down businesses again? Will the public really tolerate that? In my opinion, they won’t.

I don’t believe I’m the only one that feels this way. We’ve restricted our movements, our children’s education, our commerce and our relationships. At some point we have to collectively realize that we’ve done what we can to mitigate the risks of the pandemic and move on with our lives.

Just get the vaccine

If you’re not vaccinated, just do it. There’s enough data to prove the safety and effectiveness of these vaccines. In fact, the vaccines that you and your children willingly accept, like polio and the flu vaccine, weren’t tested on nearly as many people as have undergone testing with the COVID vaccine prior to FDA approval.

Feel like it hasn’t been around long enough or worried about the new technology associated with an mRNA vaccine? Until you know what m-R-N-A stands for, your opinion regarding virology, vaccinology and epidemiology may not be relevant. Don’t trust researchers and doctors who developed the vaccine but trust them enough when you’re sick as hell and seeking treatment at the hospital? Why the trust after sickness but not before?

The pandemic is over

From an epidemiological perspective, the pandemic may not be over. There will be more surges, more infections, more death. I hope I’m not one of those. I hope you and your family members are not in that number. Avoid high risk situations and get the vaccine. Other than that, apathy is what will ultimately end this pandemic.

The post The pandemic is over… time to move on first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Dr. Bae:
Thanks so much, Greg. Good to see you.

Greg:
Did I embarrass you? I hope not.

Dr. Bae:
I’m getting red, getting red.

Greg:
Your hair’s getting longer, by the way, again. Are you doing the COVID thing and not cutting it again, or what’s going on over there?

Dr. Bae:
Yeah, letting it grow out. According to my wife and the person who cuts my hair, Kristin at Monument Salon, shout out to Kristin, they both like my hair a little long, kind of like Oscar Isaac. That was actually the actor that they said they wanted my hair to look like.

Greg:
Hey listen, first of all, the two people you should be listening to in life, your wife, number one, and the person that does your hair, number two. So good choice.

Dr. Bae:
Thanks.

Why Dr. Bae cancelled his trip to Hawaii

Greg:
But the reason I bring it up is, we were kind of full steam, speed ahead, taking our masks off, going out, doing all these things because we kind of thought we had this COVID thing beat, but the Delta variant has thrown a little bit of a curve ball at us, and we’re all kind of coming back. I know me, I washed all my masks, got them in my car, got them in my backpack again. And then I know you just made a major decision about traveling. You were about to take a big trip to Hawaii and you’ve made a decision to not go?

Dr. Bae:
Yeah, if y’all remember, on Big Bay Mornings, I actually invited everybody to come join us in Hawaii and Maui at the end of August, and-

Greg:
I was going to be your nanny. I was going to take care of the baby and then y’all could hang out.

Dr. Bae:
Exactly. Well, yeah, we were excited to have you as our nanny, but we decided to not go because… And I want to make it clear to everybody that we’re making decisions based on specific situation in our life that this doesn’t necessarily mean everybody else has to do the same. But if it was just me and Kelsey, two adults that were vaccinated, I would’ve still gone to Hawaii at the end of the month. No question about it. Even with the Delta variant, even though it’s more infectious and things like that. We would’ve been vaccinated, we would’ve worn N95 masks on the plane. I felt like we would’ve been pretty safe.

Kids under 12 unvaccinated

Dr. Bae:
But because we were going to be traveling with a six and a half month old, or a seven month old by that time, who’s not eligible for the vaccine, who wouldn’t be vaccinated by then, we felt like we needed to cancel the trip. And we reached out to the hotel and just said, “You know what? We’re coming there, we promise. Keep our money, we’re not asking for a refund. Hopefully we’ll be there within the next six months.” And so yeah, we canceled the trip to Hawaii and we’ll just do a little staycation here. But I think the issue was just that, because Emilio isn’t vaccinated yet and being in closed quarters for a five-hour flight, it was just too much anxiety. Because the truth is, he’s a perfectly healthy little boy, and if he got sick, and I know it’s rare that kids get really sick from COVID, but… It’s rare, that doesn’t mean it’s zero. And if he did actually get sick-

Greg:
Yeah. Well, and a baby can’t even wear a mask, right?

Dr. Bae:
That’s the whole thing, yeah, they talk about… Well, the baby’s not required to wear a mask, but I think it’d be pretty tough and maybe a little scary if it-

Greg:
I mean, how would you put a… Yeah, I don’t even know how you would do it.

Dr. Bae:
Yeah, and you’d be afraid that it would smother the baby. Yeah, that’d be a bad scene. So we just didn’t want to take the chance of this perfectly healthy little boy getting potentially sick and getting a rare, serious case of COVID. So yeah, we canceled the trip. We’ll hang out here. We’ll be able to travel there again. We’re just going to stay home, stay healthy. And since we’re requiring all of our patients coming into the office now to be vaccinated, we’re hopefully going to keep the Delta variant at bay, keep our own little herd immunity here in the office and that way I won’t take it-

Greg:
At bay. At Bae.

Dr. Bae:
Oh yeah, at Bae. Yeah, there you go, B-A-E.

Greg:
Hey, even though you did cancel your trip and you did it because of your baby, but you said you would’ve gone had-

Dr. Bae:
I would’ve.

How to travel safely

Greg:
… you weren’t taking the baby. You do still think there are safe ways people can travel, but you would definitely recommend, I mean, maybe the best mask possible. What is that, the N95?

Dr. Bae:
Yeah, I don’t know if it’s… Nothing’s going to be a hundred percent safe. It’s about risk mitigation, risk reduction. And I think that if you’re traveling by car to someplace up in Napa and you’re going to be at a hotel that’s got, basically outdoor, that you don’t have to go into a lobby to go into your room, that you have a direct entrance into your room, if there’s little bungalows and things, I think that’s super safe to do that. I think you’re outdoors, you’re not going into a crowded area. If you’re able to eat outdoors, I think that’s as safe as you can be without completely shutting everything down. And yeah, N95 masks definitely are going to be better than just a regular cloth mask. So I think there’s definitely safer ways to travel and that’s what I would encourage people to do, and that’s what we’re… We’re following my own advice.

Greg:
Awesome. Well, I mean, listen, we’ve got to live life, but we also can make smart decisions and smart choices to keep ourselves safe and everybody else safe.

Dr. Bae:
Right. We want to live life, but we want to be alive to live life.

Greg:
There you go.

Dr. Bae:
Yeah, so make some good choices. There you go.

How to find Dr. Bae

Greg:
That’s great advice. And if you need any other advice from Dr. Bae, whether it’s about COVID, or maybe you want to book a plastic surgery appointment, or maybe you need a consultation for something and just want to ask him a question, he will answer anything that you want to ask at…

Dr. Bae:
Realdrbae, R-E-A-L-D-R-B-A-E on Snapchat, TikTok and Instagram. You can direct message us on any of those. You can watch us operate on social media, and you can also check pricing on our website at realdrbae.com. Always available.

Greg:
Great to see you, Dr. Bae.

Dr. Bae:
Great to see you, Greg.

The post Why I canceled my trip to Hawaii [video] first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Dr. Bae:
Thanks for the compliment, Greg. Happy to be here.

Greg:
You’re welcome. I’m glad that you appreciate the compliment. You could say it back if you want, but anyhow…

Dr. Bae:
Back at you back at you.

Coronavirus in our future

Greg:
Well, you’ve kind of helped this face in the past, but anyway. Dr. Bae, of course, we’re going to be talking about coronavirus for a long time. You’ve always shared the knowledge that you have with us about coronavirus and where you think things are going. Looking like in the news, they’re talking about herd immunity. Can we get there with vaccinations. Maybe not enough people in America are going to get the vaccinations and what are we going to do? How is it going to affect us? Can we still leave the house? Where is all this going? What’s the future look like?

Herd immunity

Dr. Bae:
Well, I think the good news is, this is definitely something that we’re going to be able to manage going forward. We’re not going to be stuck in the house for the rest of our lives or anything like that. The thing people do have to understand is that, one of the numbers they were throwing out with herd immunity, meaning that enough people would have it, that it would protect all of us. Either you’d get herd immunity by getting actually sick and getting antibodies to the coronavirus or getting the vaccination. They were talking about that number would be like 60, 70% of the population would have to have the vaccine or have gotten coronavirus to get heard immunity. Now that number is creeping up a little bit and they’re saying that with these variants, that maybe make things a little bit more contagious. The different variants from South Africa or Brazil, or from the UK that now maybe you have to have like 80 to 90% herd immunity, so that’s going to be kind of tough to make sure that 80 to 90% of our population.

Dr. Bae:
That’s the thing. It’s not just adults, it’s kids and things who aren’t even getting the vaccine right now, so it means the vaccine, the rate’s going to be really high to get herd immunity. Again, that doesn’t mean that we have to stay in lockdown. What it really means is that most of us will be protected and that if you do happen to get the coronavirus, but you’ve been vaccinated, then you won’t, statistically speaking, you won’t get admitted to the hospital, you won’t die from it, it’ll be more like a seasonal cold or something like that. That means that we’ll probably need to continue getting vaccines or boosters every year. If you think about it, all I’m really describing is the flu shot or the way the flu has become now. We think of the flu as something that, it’s a bummer if you get it, but you survive it typically and we still have to get flu shots every year to stay up with whatever new variants there are. That’s why we’re getting flu shots every year, because there are variants each year.

Coronavirus and the flu

Greg:
This is a new, one thing I think people have to realize again, this is a new thing. We learned a lot in the first year, they’re going to still keep learning more about coronavirus and the rollout, but they do have these vaccines now. Now they realize how to roll it out and get it out into the hands. That was a little tough at the beginning, but now it looks like it will be like the flu shot, where the vaccine is rolled out seamlessly each year.

Dr. Bae:
Correct. Exactly. You’re a 100% right. The thing people also have to keep in mind, is that just like we’ve done the flu shot each year and now that flu shot will probably include some variant of the coronavirus that happens to be the main one that year. It’s not necessarily the one that was big last year that people would get that flu shot every year with whatever flu viruses are coming or whatever coronavirus is coming, they’ll get that in the flu shot. The thing people also have to remember is that even with the flu, year after year, depending on the year, depending on what source you’re looking at, 20 to 40,000 people die from the regular old flu every year, so we’re not eliminating that. That was probably a mistake by public health officials to ever think that we were going to be able to just eliminate this thing or at least give people that hope. This is going to be just something we’re going to have to manage with each year.

Dr. Bae:
Yes, people are going to die from the coronavirus in years to come, but just like they die from the flu. Those are people who maybe have pre-existing conditions, so it’s a reason to get healthy. It’s older population, so we need to make sure they’re vaccinated each year. Again, it all comes back to managing how we deal with this going forward so that we don’t have to stay in lockdown. Maybe every 100 years there’ll be a new virus that comes out that we can’t really handle quickly and that’s when you’ll have another pandemic. Hopefully that won’t happen again in our lifetimes.

Working from home

Greg:
Well, you know what? Speaking of that, I mean, we all have to take a little bit of responsibility to getting ourselves as healthy as possible, so this is good knowledge. Also, people can get healthy by losing weight and getting into better shape and exercising. I know you can help with giving advice for that or helping with different procedures. If they want to talk to you, Dr. Bae, in more in depth, one-on-one, a consultation for something. How do they reach you?

Dr. Bae:
Well, first I want to say you heard it here first, liposuction is not the treatment to get yourself in better shape for the coronavirus. If you’re looking to get something done, no problem, I’m happy to help. You can check out our website, realdrbae R E A L D R B A E, not B A Y, realdrbae.com. and you can also follow us on Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, excuse me, @realdrbae and we can check pricing on our website and all that good stuff. If you are still working from home, moving forward your company has said, even though things are opening back up and you’re still going to work from home, this may be the best time for you to get a procedure and recover while still working from home. Pretty convenient.

Greg:
It is. All right. Well thanks again Dr. Bae.

Dr. Bae:
My pleasure, thanks for having me.

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post What’s in our coronavirus future? first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

In the run up to the current vaccine approvals and post approval process, I’m blown away by what is making people worried about this vaccine. I’m not surprised they’re worried. Totally get that. But surprised by what they’re worried about!

Anxiety and fear are completely understandable for a vaccine that was developed in record time and with “newer” technology (mRNA (m = messenger)(RNA = ribonucleic acid). I say “newer” because while it’s the first vaccine coming to market using mRNA technology, the technology was actually developed decades ago. Yes, it was approved under an emergency use authorization so we don’t have years of follow up studies confirming its safety. However, with the millions of people who’ve received the vaccine either during trials or since release, severe reactions are very rare. Most side effects include short-term fatigue or headache. But with a greater than 94% effectiveness, these side effects are a reasonable tradeoff.

Of course we shouldn’t go into anything blindly. Of course we should have an idea of what we’re putting into our body. But the concerns people are bringing up suggest misinformation and rumors without a clear basis. My post below, along with this article and this article seek to allay some of those concerns.

Fertility

When someone expresses a concern, I don’t believe we should dismiss those concerns. I think we should be curious as to what is the underlying reasoning for their concern. Once we know, we can more accurately address that concern.

But in the case of fertility, it’s not clear where this fear is coming from. Do they think the vaccine causes a person to become sterile? Impotent? This article suggests the concern is a debunked cross reaction with placental proteins! I want to ask the people that cite this as the reason for not getting the vaccine, “what do you know about placental proteins?!”

An alternative reason for concerns about fertility may lie with the vaccine’s mechanism of action. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are messenger RNA-based vaccines. mRNA is genetic code that the cell uses as a blueprint for manufacturing proteins. In the case of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine, the mRNA goes into the cell and stimulates the cell to create the coronavirus’ spike protein.

The spike protein then goes to the cell surface and stimulates the body’s immune system to create antibodies to that protein. Keep in mind the presence of these manufactured spike proteins on your cell surface don’t last forever. They degrade over time like any protein. They’re there just long enough for your body to stimulate antibodies to them. And if the real coronavirus with its spike proteins enters the body, your immune system is primed and ready to produce antibodies to neutralize the virus.

But at no time does the mRNA ever enter the “inner sanctum” of the cell, the nucleus. This is where our genetic code is kept. Our genome, our DNA. By remaining outside of the nucleus when creating the spike protein, the mRNA never incorporates into our DNA. Therefore it is not passed on to your kids and does not affect fertility.

If additional reassurance is necessary in regards to fertility, keep in mind that The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology are very clear about vaccination during pregnancy and lactation. They’re for it!

Ultimately, the attempt to dispel a myth regarding fertility is the difficulty in addressing the underlying source of the concern (since it’s not always clear).

So imagine yourself listening to the news during this pandemic and the news anchor says, “Breaking News! Two companies have developed new vaccines for the coronavirus. They work by injecting the actual coronavirus into your bloodstream.”

Concerns over the vaccine technology

Back to the technology used in these first two vaccines. They use mRNA as a way to stimulate the body’s immune response as explained previously. Whether people are concerned that it’s the first vaccine using this technique or because of fear that it interacts with our own DNA (again, it doesn’t), I think it’s important for concerned citizens to consider the alternative types of vaccines.

Keep in mind that all of the vaccines you’ve ever received, stimulated your immune response by using 1) a live, weakened (attenuated) virus (eg MMR or measles vaccine), or 2) a dead virus (eg polio, hepatitis A, most flu vaccines). So imagine yourself listening to the news during this pandemic and the news anchor says, “Breaking News! Two companies have developed new vaccines for the coronavirus. They work by injecting the actual coronavirus into your bloodstream.” It wouldn’t matter that the vaccine contained weakened or dead viral particles. You’d run for the hills!

Therefore, a vaccine that produces a protein that allows your body to produce antibodies to the virus, without ever interacting with the virus itself, is progress. Consider yourself lucky to be living in a time where this technology is available. Now go out and get vaccinated!

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post You’re worried about this vaccine?! And other myths! first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

The Vice Presidential debate last week may seem like forever ago. But who can forget Kamala Harris’ statement that she would accept a vaccine from the FDA but not from President Trump. Whether you heard it or not, it’s still nonsense. This has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with the scientific method and science in general. So don’t let Kamala scare you.

Don’t let Kamala scare you from taking a vaccine

The development and approval of a vaccine is not, nor has it ever been, solely under the discretion of the President. There is a cacophony of public and private partnerships involved. Currently there are four drug companies that are in the final Phase 3 trials of a COVID-19 vaccine. Translation: they’re providing the vaccine to tens of thousands of volunteers throughout the world to ensure the vaccine is both safe and effective.

After each phase of any drug trial, the FDA reviews the data to determine if the drug company can proceed to the next phase and final approval after the third phase. Consider all of the researchers, doctors, nurses, statisticians that take part in these studies. If there were any shortcuts, someone within this entire process would blow the whistle.

And with so many involved, there are simply too many people standing in the way of a President imposing their will to magically approve a vaccine over everyone’s objections. While Vladimir Putin did that in Russia, this isn’t Russia. So for Kamala to say she would accept a vaccine from the FDA but not from the President is ridiculous. The truth is that approval is predicated on the drug companies, the FDA and the President signing off on it. Does that mean she won’t take the vaccine because the President was ultimately involved? Actually, what she does personally is immaterial.

Why her comments are so irresponsible

The real issue, the real harm is that she has lent credence to the thousands (or millions?) of Americans that have reservations about taking the vaccine. For either founded or unfounded reasons, some have concerns about the safety of the vaccine. With her irresponsible comments, they can now follow their instincts to forego the vaccine. Albeit for completely unscientific, nonsensical reasons.

By promoting a conspiracy that Trump will single-handedly approve the vaccine, she is no better than anti-vaxxers that believe vaccines lead to autism, a widely debunked theory. Some may believe her comments were hyperbole. That she didn’t really mean it. Unfortunately, being the Jenny McCarthy of the Democratic Party and scaring the populace from getting the vaccine, and producing herd immunity, is unforgivable.

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post If a vaccine is approved, don’t let Kamala scare you from taking it! first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Wash your hands, wipe down surfaces, don’t touch your face and practice social distancing. If nothing else, that’s what you should take away from this coronavirus overview. But keep reading to learn important details about this epidemic. Such as, how we can make it end with less collateral damage? How does it compare to a typical annual flu season? This coronavirus overview is based on science, epidemiology and facts. No “fake” news and no political or socioeconomic commentary… until the very end.

Coronavirus overview: The basics

This newly discovered coronavirus is “SARS-CoV-2” (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome – Corona Virus – version 2 (the first version discovered in February 2002 in China)) and the disease it causes is COVID-19 (COrona VIrus Disease discovered in 2019).

While the first case, or patient 0 is not known, it is believed the virus was passed from animal to human in a seafood and live animal market in Wuhan, China according to the CDC. COVID-19, like many other coronaviruses spread from bats.

Keep in mind that not all coronaviruses are so life threatening. Some coronaviruses are responsible for the common cold. But COVID-19, is a new, or novel, coronavirus that is potentially life-threatening and for which no one has immunity. Until of course, they contract the disease and recover, rather than succumb to it.

How it’s spread

Persons infected with COVID-19 become symptomatic approximately 2-14 days after contracting the virus. This is why testing of the disease prior to symptom onset is important. The hope is that if someone tests positive before they experience symptoms, they will self-quarantine and non unwittingly infect others.

Unfortunately, the potential for an asymptomatic person spreading the disease without knowing they have it, and therefore not practicing social distancing, is very real. The CDC has said that asymptomatic carriers are not the main driver of disease, which may be true. But asymptomatic transmission may be a bigger risk than initially understood.

For those that are symptomatic, symptoms include fever, sneezing and coughing initially. Thereafter, the disease can progress to severe respiratory failure, especially in elderly adults. Those with chonic illnesses such as heart disease or diabetes are also at greater risk. Keep in mind, over 80% of cases are mild and do not require hospitalization. Currently, based on a recent compilation of data from the New England Journal of Medicine, the risk of death is 1%, which is 10x greater than the risk of death from the “typical” annual flu, which is < 0.1%

The virus is present in the secretions of the nose and mouth. The virus spreads via coughing or sneezing directly onto another person. And those virus-infested droplets can subsequently land on a surface that someone can touch and then touch their face, leading to infection. The route of transmission is the basis for the now well known recommendations to wash your hands for 20 seconds, avoid touching your face and social distancing of 6 feet.

Face masks of the N-95 type are recommended for sick individuals. These masks fit tightly to the face, minimizing the risk of spread. However, it would be more optimal for sick individuals to remain at home. There is no benefit to healthy adults wearing masks of any type.

The spread of COVID-19

According to this article in the New England Journal of Medicine, and an excellent visual representation in the Washington Post, COVID-19 has an estimated reproduction number (R₀) of 2.2. The higher the R₀, the more infectious, or the faster the spread of the disease. In the case of COVID-19, the R₀ means each infected person will give the infection to an additional two persons. For comparison, measles, which was mostly eradicated by a vaccine, has a higher R₀ of between 12 and 18, with each person spreading the disease to 12 to 18 other individuals!

Keep in mind that how contagious a disease is, is completely different from how deadly it is. For example, the ebola virus has a R₀ of less than 2 (less contagious). But it kills half the people that become infected.

Aside from individually doing our part of social distancing, what can society as a whole do? This Washington Post article explains, in visual simulations, how a fictitious disease spreads. Without any intervention, COVID-19 could have an exponential rate of spread, doubling the number of cases every three days. This would result in the infection of 100 million cases in the US by May! But again, this is without any intervention.

What stops the spread of COVID-19?

So what interventions does the CDC recommend? The goal of any intervention is to slow the number of people that get the disease, but also minimize the number of people that have it at any one time, resulting in a growing number of recovering patients who can no longer spread the disease.

A forced quarantine in theory works. If there is a well-defined area of people that have the disease and the authorities don’t let them out of that area, then they can’t spread it further (ie a cruise ship). Unfortunately, as mentioned above, some asymptomatic people will leave the defined area 1) before they know they’re sick and 2) before it’s clear there is an epidemic in the first place and thus, before a quarantine has been established.

Another option is the banning of public gatherings and the individual’s choice to avoid any gatherings not already banned. With fewer people around, the virus is more limited in its ability to spread to others. This includes the cessation of March Madness and the NBA season. Possibly the delay of the baseball season, the cancellation of the Olympics, and school closures. Therefore, social distancing, on a community wide level, or moreover, on a nationwide level is the best way to slow the spread.

Cautious optimism in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore

Not only do these techniques work in theory, they’re shown to work in the midst of this current crisis. Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, all with very low rates of infection despite being in such close proximity to the epicenter of COVID-19, show the benefits of banning travel from areas of infection and reducing public gatherings. If there is a linear rate of infections, the United States’ recent efforts in banning public gatherings has resulted in a confirmed infection rate (0.00085%) better than Singapore (0.0035%) and Hong Kong (0.0019) but trailing Taiwan’s infection rate of 0.00025% as of March 15th, 2020.

The irony of instituting these behavioral modifications on society as a whole is that if it reduces the number of infections over the course of the epidemic in the US, everyone who said we as a nation were overreacting will say “I told you it wasn’t going to be that bad!”

Flattening the curve

You may have seen this recent “flatten the curve” meme across the internet.

Important to remember that #Covid-19 epidemic control measures may only delay cases, not prevent. However, this helps limit surge and gives hospitals time to prepare and manage. It’s the difference between finding an ICU bed & ventilator or being treated in the parking lot tent. pic.twitter.com/VOyfBcLMus

— Drew A. Harris, DPM, MPH (@drewaharris) February 28, 2020

This graphic was first created in 2007 as part of a CDC article regarding a future pandemic. The graphic describes how the use of simple interventions like hand washing and keeping kids home from school can slow a pandemic. By slowing the spread of the disease and flattening the curve, the healthcare system can acclimate to the needs of the public and ramp up their response. This will allow sick individuals to get the care they need, ie ICU beds and ventilators. This, in contrast to the situation in Italy where some are left to die because there are no ventilators available, since so many people got so sick, so fast.

How this coronavirus compares to other respiratory syndromes and the annual flu

COVID-19 shares approximately 80% of the genetic material as the coronavirus that caused SARS-CoV, the virus that emerged in 2002-2003 in Guangdong, China. While they are similar, they have very different infection and mortality rates. SARS infected over 8000 people, killing about 800 whereas COVID-19 has infected 142,539 and killed 5,392 as of March 15, 2020. In other words, SARS reproductive capacity to infect others (R₀) was low when compared to COVID-19, but so far, SARS has a higher mortality rate (more patients died). The reason is not quite clear but has to do with the ability of SARS to infect the deeper portions of the lung, causing pneumonia. Whereas COVID-19 is often more restricted to the mucus membranes of the nose and mouth, typically causing flu-like symptoms.

And while it’s easy to focus all of our attention on COVID-19, don’t forget the severity of the annual flu. The flu/influenza virus, despite having a vaccine, was the cause of 34 million cases of flu this year, in the US! 350,000 of those cases resulted in hospitalizations and 20,000 deaths (<0.1%). Certainly most flu cases are milder and the mortality rate is lower than COVID-19. But these numbers speak to the importance of vaccination, washing hands and social distancing as a general rule going forward.

Where do we go from here

Once tests are more readily available in your area, it’s worth getting one for COVID-19. By knowing if you’re asymptomatically positive, you can do your part to self-quarantine and reduce the spread. (At the time of this writing, due to low supplies, testing is only recommended for healthcare workers in close contact with infected patients, hospitalized patients and those with symptoms of fever and cough with underlying medical problems).

Vaccination can be a touchy subject for many. But can a stronger case be made to vaccinate for the annual flu virus, and for COVID-19 once available?!

While doing what we can to stay healthy, we should also adjust our lifestyle in a way that remains fulfilling. If possible, work from home. We have email and videoconferencing now, options not available during the 1918 flu epidemic. Worried about going to a restaurant? Continue to order food from your favorite restaurant via food delivery apps. A doctor’s visit? Many doctors offer televisits for checkups and consults.

In other words, we should heed the advice of the CDC, but keep our economy moving along as best as possible. Because my fear is that after we weather the storm of COVID-19, we’ll enter an economic storm of a different sort. Our collective economic health goes hand in hand with our goal of being physically and mentally healthy.

Stay safe and stay healthy!

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Coronavirus overview by Dr. Jonathan Kaplan first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.