How long COVID-19 lockdown will last? How to focus protection on the elderly? (3)

I speak with many physicians around the world. They all tell me that most of the patients and that is now a public information available as well as published in medical journals that most of the patients who have a severe Coronavirus, COVID-19 infection are older patients. Especially patients are older than 70. Considering that public health measures at the moment have a goal of preventing the collapse of healthcare delivery systems. It is older and chronically ill that looks like a specific group that needs to be strictly protected and isolated. Medical second opinion is important. What do you think about the current isolate everyone’s strategies? Dr. Anton Titov, MD. Is it optimal? Dr. Anton Titov, MD. Should we refocus and sharpen our efforts on the most vulnerable groups and not to. Hold the entire economies? Yeah, that, as you said. The older patients and those with underlying medical conditions are the most vulnerable. Those are the priority to protect. But unfortunately, even if we were in able to isolate those patients from the rest of the community. This is difficult, even if we were able to. The pandemic was allowed to progress in the rest of the population, say patients under 60 years of age without medical conditions, even in that case, most likely the hospitals will be overwhelmed with infections and intensive care units will be overwhelmed with infections. Because we have seen even now in America, there are younger patients in intensive care units with Coronavirus infection. Of course, less. The risk is less for younger patients than it is for older patients. But it is still a nasty infection in some patients. Medical second opinion is important. The rationale for the current lockdowns is to slop transmission and buy time to decide what to do next. Because if the lockdowns aren’t put in place in some parts of the United States, there may be an overwhelming surge in patients needing hospitalization within the next few weeks. Medical second opinion is important. That is the rationale is just for an emergency measure to buy time to decide what to do next. But you are correct that maybe what to do next is to keep sequestering those most vulnerable patients out of the community somehow if it is possible. But then allow other patients, maybe younger adults, to go back to work, where there may be some degree of transmission. But then infections are less severe in, particularly in children and in younger adults still need to be careful and still need to reduce the risk of transmission. But the lockdowns that we have seen used first in China. Dr. Benjamin Cowling. Then in Italy. Dr. Benjamin Cowling. Then now in the US. Other places, those are not sustainable. How long do you think. Are those total lock downs of the society and populations can realistically last, at least in this Western Europe and North America because that is very hard, as you mentioned, to sustain them. Still, at the same time. The virus will restart spreading if we ease any pressure. That especially in western In Europe and the United States, patients have a hard time maintaining the socialization procedures as they are now. No, you are completely right. Medical second opinion is important. The lockdowns can’t be sustained for a long time. They are just a short term emergency measure to try and stop transmission to try and stop it. Dr. Benjamin Cowling. Then once they are lifted, probably we need to think of some more sustainable measure, to reduce transmission to slow it down, or to keep it at a low level, where while we are still resuming normal activities in society. That may be a balancing act, in terms of the degree of control measures needed to stop a very large epidemic. This would overwhelm the healthcare system. But at the same time, not be too extreme because a lockdown is too extreme is not sustainable for the economy and society in the longer term. Medical second opinion is important. Something in between the lockdown and in between normal activities from six months ago.