WHY THE CORONAVIRUS DEATH RATE WILL INCREASE–I’m A Surgeon–Here’s The SCIENCE

I disagree with his conclusions and I am a Dr. as well. I have been doing it for a much longer period of time and have read, likely, orders of magnitude more Scientific Papers. I can only spend a little time on this “spreading of Panic” idiocy. First, in order to calculate a “Death Rate” you need to know the number of “Infected Patients” and the current lack of tests is one issue. The current testing process, if done at a “certified” lab (say the 2 {that is two} labs in my state of WI, it will take 3 days to get the test back. The State Health Department is asking doctors to use their discretion but has strongly suggested we only test those with a “strong” potential for having a positive. If this virus is passed by an individual a day or two before they become “strongly” suspect of having the problem we are 4 to 5 days into the infection, or further (that is because NO ONE KNOWS at this point all the specifics of how this virus acts. There are NO “patient controlled, double blind studies” on this contagion because it is NEW and there are NO Experts, no matter how credentialed they maintain themselves to be because it is NEW and, therefore, UNKNOWN. If one applies a little Medical Thinking to this virus and the extremely limited information gathered thus far and look at the “Puney”(sp) French study that used a combination of Chloroquine or Hydroxychloroquine plus azithromycin and got good results, one might think this is, at least a viable answer. However, the available antivirals seem to work better when started very EARLY in the infection and azithromycin is NOT an antiviral but a long half-life antibiotic and has likely little effect on the virus but is more likely working on the “ASSOCIATED PNEUMONIA” that has come into play because the diagnosis is so far behind the curve. The better consideration, in my opinion, is to consider the Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine a “Prophylaxis against this virus, much like this class of meds has been used for more than a half century against Malaria. The safety is actually quite good since there has been a huge test run called the War in Vietnam where our Military was given this weekly to prevent malaria. The CDC has recommendations for its use on their website specific to travelers to areas where this is endemic. I recoil at the hysteria that has been created and the “blind” following of a few that declare themselves “expert” in an area that has NO KNOWN experts. This could go on further but I am sure those that have read this far are already bored. In addition to my Medical degree I am a thesis (or 2 Research Papers) short of a Masters Degree in Microbiology.