Dr. Otto Yang was also interviewed today though the focus was on COVID-19 in general and not leronlimab.
The situation sounds critical - "people are overworked and overwhelmed"
Here is hoping leronlimab becomes more readily available where and when needed.
https://finance.yahoo.com/video/people-overwo...58144.html
Yahoo Finance Video
‘People are overworked and overwhelmed’: Doctor on the state of covid-19 in California hospitals
Thu, December 24, 2020, 12:28 PM EST
Dr. Otto Yang, Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, joins Yahoo Finance’s Julia La Roche and Adam Shapiro to discuss her thoughts on the coronavirus pandemic and the state of California as it faces another spike in cases.
Video Transcript
JULIA LA ROCHE: As the US deals with the latest surge in COVID-19 cases, California has been especially hit hard. I'd like to bring into the stream Dr. Otto Yang, Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Dr. Yang, thank you so much for joining us. Of course, a lot of folks were talking about California and the holiday surge there.
Can you contextualize for our viewers what is happening in California as it relates to COVID-19?
OTTO YANG: Well, we've been hit with a flood of COVID cases, far exceeding anything that we saw before. And our hospitals are basically all full.
ADAM SHAPIRO: What is this like for you personally? I mean, we can't imagine the horror of this.
OTTO YANG: I'm fortunate because I'm more of a researcher. And I spend less time on the front lines than many of my colleagues. But the full time physicians who are seeing patients day to day, and the nurses, and the respiratory therapists, and all the staff in the hospitals, I think it's-- it's a horrifying experience for them, very stressful. Staffing is the limiting factor. We have enough rooms. We have enough ventilators. But staffing, we just-- people are overworked and overwhelmed.
JULIA LA ROCHE: Dr. Yang, what do you attribute this to? Is this from the Thanksgiving holiday travel that folks were warned about not to travel at that time, and now we're starting to see that manifest itself, that timeline that had been put out there. Is that what you think this is really from?
OTTO YANG: I think that's a large factor. Yes, that and loosening of policies leading up to Thanksgiving. And I think also just people reaching fatigue in terms of following guidelines to distance and mask and protect themselves.
ADAM SHAPIRO: What are your colleagues telling you about the ability-- there are other issues that hit people medically. Do the hospitals have the room to take somebody who might, God forbid, be in cardiac arrest or other kinds of emergencies?
OTTO YANG: They, of course, have no choice but to take somebody that's in that type of dire circumstance. But there's a big trickle down effect, right. So elective surgeries or elective procedures are all being delayed to conserve space in the hospital for sick patients. So it-- you know, we saw this earlier that when the hospitals started to get a bit full, that cancers were being diagnosed later or treated later.
And I think we're going to see much of the same and patients not coming in. Because they're-- the hospitals are full, and the clinics are closed.
JULIA LA ROCHE: Dr. Yang, for folks watching, if you could share some sort of message or plea for the public, what would you say to them?
OTTO YANG: I would say to, you know, listen to-- to the people on the front lines, the physicians, and the scientists and to take this seriously. It's boggles my mind that, to this day, there are still conspiracy theories floating around and people who are denying this and saying it's just like the flu. You know, this clearly is not something to be taken lightly.
And as a society, we should not be in this situation where we don't take something seriously unless it affects us personally. We need to be thinking about this as a society. And this needs to be above politics. This needs to be independent of political beliefs or political feelings.
ADAM SHAPIRO: We're seeing now what, I guess, is the wave after the Thanksgiving mistakes that people made. And now we have people, more than a million people, traveling every day since last Thursday. How bad will this get in a couple of weeks after the Christmas holiday break?
OTTO YANG: I am afraid even to try to imagine it. But it certainly-- it seems like we're on pace for it to get much, much worse. Things have only continued to ramp up. And if the predictions about people traveling for Christmas and getting together for Christmas are accurate, we're going to see as big a wave as from Thanksgiving. And so this is really going to be a huge problem.
And I think we're going to start seeing mortality rates creep up. So, you know, each patient-- part of the reason that things have improved in terms of mortality is that doctors have gotten much better at knowing how to treat the disease. But if hospitals and the hospital staff are overwhelmed, all that's going to go out the window. And mortality rates are going to climb drastically.
JULIA LA ROCHE: You know, let's talk about maybe from what should be done to kind of help limit some of this. Do we need more travel restrictions? What kind of measures could help mitigate the situation in California?
OTTO YANG: Well, certainly leadership from above would be helpful. And that's been a weak point in dealing with this pandemic that has been especially bad in this country, unfortunately. I think, at this point, to some extent, we're on our own. And we need to exercise personal responsibility. So really, the basics have not changed. So people talk about how recommendations have flip-flopped, and the scientific data have changed. That's actually not true.
The basics about how this virus have been the same since March, in terms of what people have been saying. It's really the simple basics, right, so mask wearing as much as possible, physical distancing, trying to keep events outdoors, avoiding crowded indoor spaces, avoiding meeting with people in large groups. I mean, these are really simple basics and based on what we understand of the virus and how it's spread.
JULIA LA ROCHE: Dr. Otto Yang, Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, thank you so much for taking the time and wishing you a happy and healthy holiday season and new year.
The situation sounds critical - "people are overworked and overwhelmed"
Here is hoping leronlimab becomes more readily available where and when needed.
https://finance.yahoo.com/video/people-overwo...58144.html
Yahoo Finance Video
‘People are overworked and overwhelmed’: Doctor on the state of covid-19 in California hospitals
Thu, December 24, 2020, 12:28 PM EST
Dr. Otto Yang, Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, joins Yahoo Finance’s Julia La Roche and Adam Shapiro to discuss her thoughts on the coronavirus pandemic and the state of California as it faces another spike in cases.
Video Transcript
JULIA LA ROCHE: As the US deals with the latest surge in COVID-19 cases, California has been especially hit hard. I'd like to bring into the stream Dr. Otto Yang, Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Dr. Yang, thank you so much for joining us. Of course, a lot of folks were talking about California and the holiday surge there.
Can you contextualize for our viewers what is happening in California as it relates to COVID-19?
OTTO YANG: Well, we've been hit with a flood of COVID cases, far exceeding anything that we saw before. And our hospitals are basically all full.
ADAM SHAPIRO: What is this like for you personally? I mean, we can't imagine the horror of this.
OTTO YANG: I'm fortunate because I'm more of a researcher. And I spend less time on the front lines than many of my colleagues. But the full time physicians who are seeing patients day to day, and the nurses, and the respiratory therapists, and all the staff in the hospitals, I think it's-- it's a horrifying experience for them, very stressful. Staffing is the limiting factor. We have enough rooms. We have enough ventilators. But staffing, we just-- people are overworked and overwhelmed.
JULIA LA ROCHE: Dr. Yang, what do you attribute this to? Is this from the Thanksgiving holiday travel that folks were warned about not to travel at that time, and now we're starting to see that manifest itself, that timeline that had been put out there. Is that what you think this is really from?
OTTO YANG: I think that's a large factor. Yes, that and loosening of policies leading up to Thanksgiving. And I think also just people reaching fatigue in terms of following guidelines to distance and mask and protect themselves.
ADAM SHAPIRO: What are your colleagues telling you about the ability-- there are other issues that hit people medically. Do the hospitals have the room to take somebody who might, God forbid, be in cardiac arrest or other kinds of emergencies?
OTTO YANG: They, of course, have no choice but to take somebody that's in that type of dire circumstance. But there's a big trickle down effect, right. So elective surgeries or elective procedures are all being delayed to conserve space in the hospital for sick patients. So it-- you know, we saw this earlier that when the hospitals started to get a bit full, that cancers were being diagnosed later or treated later.
And I think we're going to see much of the same and patients not coming in. Because they're-- the hospitals are full, and the clinics are closed.
JULIA LA ROCHE: Dr. Yang, for folks watching, if you could share some sort of message or plea for the public, what would you say to them?
OTTO YANG: I would say to, you know, listen to-- to the people on the front lines, the physicians, and the scientists and to take this seriously. It's boggles my mind that, to this day, there are still conspiracy theories floating around and people who are denying this and saying it's just like the flu. You know, this clearly is not something to be taken lightly.
And as a society, we should not be in this situation where we don't take something seriously unless it affects us personally. We need to be thinking about this as a society. And this needs to be above politics. This needs to be independent of political beliefs or political feelings.
ADAM SHAPIRO: We're seeing now what, I guess, is the wave after the Thanksgiving mistakes that people made. And now we have people, more than a million people, traveling every day since last Thursday. How bad will this get in a couple of weeks after the Christmas holiday break?
OTTO YANG: I am afraid even to try to imagine it. But it certainly-- it seems like we're on pace for it to get much, much worse. Things have only continued to ramp up. And if the predictions about people traveling for Christmas and getting together for Christmas are accurate, we're going to see as big a wave as from Thanksgiving. And so this is really going to be a huge problem.
And I think we're going to start seeing mortality rates creep up. So, you know, each patient-- part of the reason that things have improved in terms of mortality is that doctors have gotten much better at knowing how to treat the disease. But if hospitals and the hospital staff are overwhelmed, all that's going to go out the window. And mortality rates are going to climb drastically.
JULIA LA ROCHE: You know, let's talk about maybe from what should be done to kind of help limit some of this. Do we need more travel restrictions? What kind of measures could help mitigate the situation in California?
OTTO YANG: Well, certainly leadership from above would be helpful. And that's been a weak point in dealing with this pandemic that has been especially bad in this country, unfortunately. I think, at this point, to some extent, we're on our own. And we need to exercise personal responsibility. So really, the basics have not changed. So people talk about how recommendations have flip-flopped, and the scientific data have changed. That's actually not true.
The basics about how this virus have been the same since March, in terms of what people have been saying. It's really the simple basics, right, so mask wearing as much as possible, physical distancing, trying to keep events outdoors, avoiding crowded indoor spaces, avoiding meeting with people in large groups. I mean, these are really simple basics and based on what we understand of the virus and how it's spread.
JULIA LA ROCHE: Dr. Otto Yang, Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, thank you so much for taking the time and wishing you a happy and healthy holiday season and new year.
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