From Journal Entry: 4/6/2020
My ex mother-in-law came to me urgently. She had a message for me. "The next wave that's going to hit will close a lot of small businesses for good."
The 'second wave' of COVID-19 in the US
Morgan Stanley's recent COVID-19 forecast released Monday said that the largest risk to the US is "a second wave of infections emanating from the central region of the country after the coasts have peaked in mid-April."
This wave, the report continues, could delay the US "peak" and cause recontamination of the coastal cities even after they see cases decline.
Scott Gottlieb, the former US Food and Drug Administration commissioner who's now a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said on Twitter that the coronavirus is now a "national epidemic with multiple epicenters."
Pointing to cities like New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Dallas, among others, Gottlieb said that cities nationwide are seeing reported cases double every three to four days.
'Prepare like New York is preparing now'
In Philadelphia, which had 890 reported cases of COVID-19 as of Monday morning, hospitals are bracing for the worst to come as reported cases of the virus keep rising.
"We anticipate we are no more than two weeks behind New York City," P.J. Brennan, chief medical officer of the massive University of Pennsylvania Health System, told The Philadelphia Inquirer. "Cases are doubling every two to three days. We had 46 confirmed cases last night. You do the math."
And hospitals across the US are already facing massive pressures on hospital resources, or preparing for the possibility of it in the coming weeks.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose state has so far been hit the hardest by the coronavirus with over 60,000 reported cases, has resorted to suggesting that hospitals in the state split ventilators between two patients amid the current shortage of the machines.
Last week, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital started to do just that, despite the risks involved.
"No state, no metro area will be spared," White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx told NBC News' Chuck Todd at a Meet the Press on Sunday. "We are asking every single governor and every single mayor to prepare like New York is preparing now."
by Yeji Jesse Lee
