Pulmonologist says ‘doomsday’ messages from Fauci, politicians are ‘unhelpful’ right now
Dr. Qanta Ahmed, who appears on Fox News frequently, is once again talking common sense when others are painting an apocalyptic vision of the pandemic. According to Ahmed, underused rapid antigen tests, which produce results in 15 minutes, and the lack of interest in cleaning indoor air are the two missing pieces amid the deadly, novel coronavirus pandemic.
Ahmed described the doom and gloom responses from political and other leaders as unhelpful and discouraging. Most Democratic leaders have proclaimed a doomsday scenario for the spread of the virus and leaders such as Dr. Anthony Fauci and President-elect Joe Biden are only making things worse claiming our darkest days are still ahead of us.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned on Sunday that the worst of the epidemic is yet to come. Fauci has deliberately misled Americans on herd immunity and virus statistics in an effort to nudge them into getting vaccinated. He’s claiming we won’t return to anything that resembles semi-normal life until the fall of 2021.
Fauci claims that the baseline of some 200,000 new cases a day in the U.S., along with a probable “post-seasonal surge,” could cause the already-burdened health system to crash and burn.
Dr. Ahmed, who is a pulmonologist at NYU Langone, has a decidedly different take on the situation.
“You know I find these comments- the doomsday comments coming from any of our leaders very unhelpful and very discouraging,” she said. “I think what we need is more humility and more honesty from our public health leaders and our political classes.”
She went on to explain that California’s massive economy has been locked down, but it has done little to stop the spread of the virus.
“So, Dr. Fauci, things are going to be worse if we’re not changing our approaches,” Ahmed said on Fox & Friends Monday. She stated that rapid antigen testing can help detect virus outbreaks and clusters to better tailor quarantines, especially in California which is now the U.S. epicenter of the pandemic.
“We’ve got no ability of detecting that right now in the United States because we’re not using rapid antigen testing,” Ahmed added, voicing her increasing skepticism of lockdowns: “[There is] no imagination for new approaches. Rapid antigen testing tailors quarantine,” she said.
“We’re not tailoring the measures and at the same time we’re destroying our economy,” she added.
“I think there’s two pieces missing. One is the rapid antigen testing, the second is zero interest in cleaning indoor air.”
Health officials have warned that crowded indoor areas with poor ventilation can contribute to the spread of the virus. Within the last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said statewide ICU capacity has dropped to 1.1%. Twice as many coronavirus and ICU patients have been admitted in the last three weeks and hospitalizations are up by over 60%.
#COVID19 UPDATE:
– ICU capacity statewide has dropped to 1.1%
– Number of COVID+ ICU patients has doubled in 3 weeks
– Hospitalizations are up 61%
– 7-day average positivity rate is 12.6%(a slight decline)
Don’t take your health for granted. Wear a mask. Stay home. Be safe.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) December 23, 2020
Nearly 120,000 Americans were hospitalized during the holidays, with approximately 200,000 new daily cases and 2,000 daily deaths, according to data from The COVID Tracking Project.
Dr. Ahmed is recommending approaches that are common sense and are being used in other countries successfully. Intimidation, threats, and fearmongering only exacerbate the situation.
