They said my coronavirus mask was overkill. That mistake cost us time and could cost lives

In a stunning move, Children’s Mercy Kansas City recently barred its medical staff from continuously wearing face masks while on shift. The hospital has gone one step further and will not allow medical workers to bring in their own outside personal protective equipment.

While I no longer work at Children’s Mercy, I faced my own struggles with the administration where I work about being allowed to wear protective gear. For weeks, I tolerated nonplussed ancillary staff and strange looks from patients when I entered the room wearing a head cap, eye protection and face mask. In reality, I was the one looking at them incredulously from beneath my layers, with my blood boiling on the inside. I wanted to shake each one of them and scream: “You — you are the reason the curve will not flatten! You are the reason my family will be at risk!”

But then the television inside the room would play news clips from the president of the United States urging Americans to use caution but to continue living their lives. I see the administration’s coronavirus response team members standing side by side without masks, failing to practice the same social distancing they espouse. I’ve watched as the often-proclaimed “greatest city in the world” — New York City — has been brought to its limits by a virus that is propagated through humanity’s own negligence and ignorance.

If we are to overcome this most vicious of novel infections, there are five truths that we must accept as fact:

1: There are only two risk factors for COVID-19: being alive and living on planet Earth.

You must live your life as if everyone else in the world has the virus. The mantra is simple: Stay indoors and you can’t get sick. Don’t let others into your home and you can’t get sick. It’s really that simple. If you want to avoid getting sick, isolate yourselves. If you need to leave the house, wear a mask.

2: Doctors should have known better.

The information was available to anyone willing to read it. There was a growing threat on the other side of the world, and as it neared, we as physicians were on the receiving end of enmity from our own leadership. My job was threatened by my medical director. I was told to remove my protective gear, as it was scaring the other patients and staff.

Fools they were. A fool I was. We should have been standing on the roof of every hospital yelling at people to open their eyes. The doctors, those who were most knowledgeable on the subject, failed to properly alert the public. We relied on our government and community leaders to do what we should have been doing.

3: We have missed the boat on “flattening the curve.”

President Donald Trump’s social distancing guidelines have now been expanded to the end of April. Incredulously, in major cities across the country, public transportation services continue to operate and some are actually encouraging riders by temporarily suspending fares. The theory is that encouraging social distancing and safe public travel will keep everyone safer. Even now, after all that has been witnessed, we fail to grasp the situation we are facing. The country is not going to begin to recover by Easter.

Every step we have taken as a nation has been reactive rather than proactive. Hospitals began by checking travel histories on all patients who came to the hospital. “Have you been to Wuhan, China?” was the question that greeted patients who stepped foot into the emergency room. In the meantime, the virus was happily being carried across countries and oceans while we assuaged our own fears by asking this one question. That evolved into checking temperatures, as if a fever were somehow 100% sensitive in detecting anyone who was infected with COVID-19. Studies have been published for months regarding the asymptomatic — an average of two to 11 days in which patients have no symptoms but are considered contagious.

4. The test doesn’t matter.

There are a variety of testing kits available now, and while they are still so new that high-quality studies have yet to be performed on them, the general school of thought is that they carry, at best, a 70% sensitivity. In other words, for every 100 diseased patients, only 70 will test positive. Treatment for the majority of the population is supportive care: rest, hydration, and antipyretics to treat fever. In those who have difficulty breathing or who are immunocompromised, there may be some additional options, but even those are still so new that they vary from hospital to hospital.

5. Acknowledge that the virus is airborne.

The World Health Organization continues to fail to declare that we should all treat the virus as if it can survive airborne, which is suggested by multiple studies. Skeptics are rightful to point out that the simple act of finding the presence of a virus in the air does not guarantee its viability, but it does say a lot about its ability to spread. There are solid studies showing that the virus is viable for up to three hours when cultured from aerosolized particles. The virus has been shown to grow under a patient’s bed, on electronic devices such as televisions and in other areas that are impossible to reach. Quite simply, it takes over the entire room. Hospitals are continuing to use precautions only for droplets, and thus failing to contain its outbreak. Anecdotal reports will continue to rise. As soon as personal protective equipment becomes more readily available, the WHO will likely confirm that the virus is airborne.

Make no mistake: This virus will eventually run its course. Whether through medical advancements in therapeutics or herd immunity or some other mechanism, the number of people dying every day will eventually decline. If we wish to expedite that flattening of the curve, we should be proactive and take steps now to prevent its spread. Assume that the virus is airborne and encourage everyone to take appropriate precautions.

Sajid Khan is an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and the author of numerous articles and books on the subject of emergency preparedness.

This story was originally published April 3, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "They said my coronavirus mask was overkill. That mistake cost us time and could cost lives."