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Medical analyst Dr. Leana Wen warned on Friday that the U.S. healthcare system was facing a collapse, with COVID-19-related hospitalizations topping 90,000.
Wen, former president of Planned Parenthood and visiting professor at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, told CNN’s Jim Acosta that people need to work to flatten the curve.
“We are facing an explosive spread in this country, Jim,” Wen said. “We’re on track to potentially reach 20 million coronavirus cases by the end of January. And I’m so worried about everything that happens during Thanksgiving because we have a massive outbreak on top of another massive outbreak. “
“So I urge everyone who is still with their loved ones to do their best not to congregate inside.
“I really know our health care system is under stress right now. We are at a point of potential collapse of our health care system.
“Each of us must do our part and stay away from these very high risk environments like indoor environments where people are gathered,” she said.
Our healthcare system is on the verge of being overwhelmed, with more than 90,000 hospitalizations # covid19. It will get even worse after Thanksgiving. Please help us flatten the curve by reducing our risk, including quarantine after holiday gatherings. pic.twitter.com/BlXfZhCnov
– Leana Wen, MD (@DrLeanaWen) November 27, 2020
Wen went on to explain that there was a lag in finding out the number of people infected over the Thanksgiving holiday, with a delay in diagnosing those affected.
“People who are infected right now – we’ll probably catch those infections in about two weeks, then we’ll see hospitalizations and intensive care visits from there a week or two weeks later,” Wen told me. .
“Again, my advice to everyone: do your best not to congregate just yet. But if you’ve traveled before and are returning to your home community, be aware that you are at high risk, because not just the high risk of the trip, but because you got together with other people and quarantined yourself for at least seven days and then got tested.
“If you don’t have easy access to the tests, quarantine for 14 days. Our healthcare system can’t resist it and so we all need to do our part to flatten that curve,” Wen said.
There have been nearly 265,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the United States since the start of the pandemic and 13 million confirmed cases of the disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has advised people not to travel for Thanksgiving.
Lloyd Fox-Pool / Getty Images
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