[ad_1]
EL PASO, Texas – In a Covid-19 briefing Thursday afternoon, Dr Hector Ocaranza, City / County Health Authority, described a “dire situation” by urging El Pasoans to avoid Thanksgiving gatherings that could further fuel the current surge overloading hospitals.
Ocaranza said El Pasoans with the virus are four times more likely to end up in hospital than the national average, according to CDC data.
The city’s Covid-19 dashboard for the first time during Thursday’s pandemic showed “El Paso hospital condition indicates readiness: NO”.
This statistic was underscored by the fact that there were 52 patients currently being cared for in a makeshift hospital set up by state and federal authorities at the El Paso Convention Center and 84 patients flown from El Paso. Paso to hospitals in other cities in Texas.
Despite what the city scorecard indicated, Mayor Dee Margo said, “We are very good on our health care and supplies.”
The mayor said with 1,500 medical staff recently sent to El Paso to help local doctors and nurses and an adequate supply of personal protective equipment, there was no rationing of care and no need for do it.
Margo’s comments generated an immediate response from Dr Ogechika Alozie, a prominent infectious disease specialist from El Paso.
He questioned the mayor’s choice of words, tweeting: “We need to do a better job of messaging. Crisis communication 101 – Rule 1: Don’t over-reassure. Too much reassurance makes people feel scared. Paradoxically. soothing. ”
Alozie also provided a link to materials from a national medical seminar that reinforced what he was doing.
In an interview with ABC-7 after the briefing, Margo sought to qualify her remarks and acknowledged the challenges facing local hospitals.
“We’re probably reaching 0 percent of the capacity of those. And that’s why we have the overflow, the tents and everything,” the mayor said. “What I’m saying is that we will adapt. And it changes every day. It changes from morning to afternoon. You will see the number of people leaving the ICU, or the news that increases or are leaving. So it’s a variable thing. The thing is, we manage it. “
The entire press conference of the mayor and other city officials can be viewed in the video player below.
Take2 – we need to do a better job of messaging. Crisis Communication 101 – Rule 1: Don’t be too reassuring. Too much reassurance makes people feel scared and abandoned / Frankness about current bad news can be paradoxically calming – https://t.co/LPjICRrHSa
– Oge A (@ogeisimo) November 19, 2020
[ad_2]
Source link