A leading infectious disease expert, Executive Associate Dean of Emory University School of Medicine Carlos del Rio has done hundreds of media interviews with CNN, CNBC and other media outlets since the COVID-19 outbreak.
During the pandemic, del Rio has worked as a doctor and researcher at Grady Memorial Hospital, treating patients and performing vaccine research.
“These two activities have been accelerating and quite taxing,” del Rio wrote. “Early on, it was not easy to see patients deteriorate in front of your eyes with not much to offer them as therapy.”
Del Rio advised organizations like the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the National College Athletic Association to cancel public gatherings in March when many still did not take the virus seriously./Courtesty of Emory Photo
Del Rio told the Wheel that he sees himself as “a disease detective.” Before this year, del Rio specialized in research on the HIV/AIDS epidemic and was called on as a national expert by prominent media outlets.
COVID-19, however, has presented new challenges. While del Rio said he had to “develop a thick skin,” the mixed reactions to his initial nationally televised appearances about COVID-19 prevention were concerning to him.
“I hear from colleagues and others saying things like ‘thank you, you have been a voice of reason’ etc., but I also have my share of people that as soon as I appear on CNN or anything send me nasty emails,” del Rio said. “At some point in time, I was even threatened by some emails saying, ‘We’re gonna kill you,’.”
Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci also received similar threats after promoting public health messages about COVID-19. Del Rio attributes the hostile response to the “very divisive” political landscape.
“We have an obligation as physicians and epidemiologists, as public health experts, to really try to get information out there.” del Rio said. “What I have found exhausting about this pandemic compared to others is how much we are doing both combating a virus and combating misinformation.”
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, conspiracy theories like those in the viral film “Plandemic” have proliferated across social media.
“This is the first pandemic of social media,” del Rio said. “Nowadays it’s like you’re getting a barrage of misinformation daily, and I think that’s really hard.”
Being active on Twitter himself, del Rio sees social media as an important tool for public experts to utilize. Before news appearances, he considers surveying the site his “Twitter briefing” to understand the misinformation being spread.
“I see us as having an obligation to engage in social media because that’s really about the only way we can actually engage appropriately with people,” del Rio said.
Del Rio spoke about COVID-19 a Feb. 18 lecture to Emory community members, believing at the time that the disease would be contained to China. He described the March and April outbreak in New York City as “a wake-up call” to the seriousness of the threat.
He advised organizations like the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the National College Athletic Association and the Atlanta Committee for Progress to cancel public gatherings in early March at a time when many still did not take the virus seriously.
In regards to public health conditions people should expect for a return to normal, del Rio explained people shouldn’t expect typical life to return, even with a vaccine.
“Rather than normal, we’re going to have to think about this new normal of masks, of social distancing continuing,” del Rio said. “Once vaccines get out and we get more vaccines into the community, I think we will be reaching more of a new normal condition. But I think it’s going to take us time to get there.”
Del Rio emphasized that social distancing entails long-term measures, pointing to European outbreaks now leading countries back into lockdowns.
“Europe did a tremendous job controlling the virus, and they dropped the guard down, and see where they are now,” del Rio said. “It’s a good reminder of, you can’t say we’re done with this virus.”
In the U.S., del Rio said he’s “very concerned” with the current peak in cases. On Nov. 3, the country recorded 74,236 COVID-19 cases and 427 deaths, bringing total cases to 9.3 million and deaths to 231,182.
“I’m just very concerned that we’re not heading in the right direction,” del Rio continued. “We’re not doing a good job managing the infection, and I just think that we have to do a better job of taking this seriously because otherwise we need to be prepared for a lot of people dying.”
While research efforts have informed better COVID-19 treatments, del Rio said the decline in mortality rates is also due to younger and less advanced patients being hospitalized. He noted in the hospital, he often finds a community that understands the gravity of COVID-19.
“At the beginning of the pandemic we were hearing, you know all the health care workers, and they were cheering, and heroes, and honestly, a lot of us in health care are pretty sick of that,” del Rio said. “We want people just to do the right thing, to wear their masks, not get sick. So I think there’s a lot of health care exhaustion.”
Del Rio remains optimistic about the impact of increased mask wearing in Georgia. In August, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp began allowing local mask mandates in the state, with 25 now passed in state, including Atlanta.
“In Georgia, we are seeing an increase in cases, but we’re not having the outbreak that they’re having in the middle of the country,” del Rio said.
At Emory University, del Rio said students have done “fairly well” in comparison to other colleges nationwide. While fall outbreaks are being driven by younger adults, del Rio said the situation is an opportunity to “be active agents of change.”
“Young people can actually make a difference,” del Rio said. “Let’s have the young people helping us figure out what we need to do because at the end of the day I think if we do this right, we can actually end this together.”
Caelan Bailey (22Ox, 24C) is from Charleston, South Carolina.
It’s a battle to get the public to understand. This might interest you, to get a better handle on what we’re facing, without being too arrogant about what we are learning and what we think we know. Especially about masks, which need to be more researched – this is a version of the introduction to my new Covid-19 book currently titled ‘Why Wear A Mask? (Pandemic Pointers and Guidelines):
Introduction To
Why Wear A Mask? (Pandemic Pointers and Guidelines)
As an older physician I have been asked by many patients, friends, and acquaintances for advice about what to do during the current pandemic. Sometimes I commented on social media. Only to be admonished on occasion by those who questioned my expectations concerning masks, especially. Most of us used to picture cancer patients and those with depleted immune systems cautiously shuffling along down the street wearing a mask to protect themselves. . . . .
I thought I knew the facts, but then, as a physician, I realized I had some studying to do. I was told that masks ‘don’t filter viruses, only aerosols and respiratory droplets which saturate the surface [of a mask] and pose a greater threat than circulating air,’ by one replier on Instagram. This woman also informed me back in June – for my first time learning about it – that the eyes are a possible venue of entry to the body for a coronavirus/Covid-19 infection.
Since that time we studious physicians, especially, now know that the hearts of over 60% of hospitalized Covid patients were STILL inflamed 70 days after they were first diagnosed with the disease, as evidenced in one study. And children five years old and under, harbor the coronavirus at 10 to 100 times the level of what older children and adults often harbor. Though they don’t seem to get sick with acute clinical symptoms as often as you’d expect. However an auto-immune syndrome has surfaced involving children, MSI-C , which seriously afflicts them two to four weeks after they’ve been infected, but may show no symptoms: initially.
We have learned from hands-on practice, certain novel techniques of treating Covid-19. More experimentation and information-sharing is occurring daily worldwide. Some people believed it all was a hoax. Some paid with their lives for this mis-information. As did a grandmother in toe-the-line conservative Tony Green’s family in Dallas, Texas. Which you will read about in the middle of this book.
Others object to the tyranny of business closings and mask mandates. But the mask remains the iconic symbol for our struggle in America: of how we are dealing with Covid-19 and its complications. While hundreds of thousands of lives will be lost, once all the deaths are tallied.
So, how ‘insanitary’ are masks? Have studies definitively disproved such a contention? Which was prominently made during the Influenza Pandemic of 1918 when an Anti-Mask League was formed in San Francisco? Amid a tumultuous time of anxiety and confrontation. When, and for over 100 years since then, we have not resolved everything which surrounds managing a viral pandemic. Nor how well a mask functions in preventing an infectious disease. That entire controversy playing out into what appears to be a rerun today.
Studies and videos are being produced showing that masks do lessen the severity of Covid symptoms, as less virus apparently gets into the body when they are worn. Masks have been shown to block the experimental laser-lit green mist of a cough from travelling any significant distance outward, as many of us have seen in that Florida Atlantic University video. [Note the link below for more information.]
https://www.cnn.com/videos/health/2020/05/04/cough-coronavirus-masks-kaye-pkg-vpx.cnn
As you observed these images, perhaps you might be wondering if six feet is actually an adequate amount of ‘social distancing?’ Which is discussed in the pages that follow.
Futuristic as we might think we are now – one whole century after the 1918 Pandemic – alas, no studies have been done definitively showing us whether masks are ‘insanitary’ or not. No studies tabulating amounts of virus and contamination of masks have been completed or presented. Not as yet. What has happened though is what author John Parry has proffered with his question and answer: “What do you get when you mix politics and science?………Politics!”
This short book should assist you who want to know what we know and are learning every day about Covid-19 (which is constantly changing) as physicians. Told in a layman’s language, as I had to speak when explaining to my patients what was medically wrong with them. While I worked as an Emergency Department Physician for 45 years.
A historical perspective of a few pandemics, including the 1918 Pandemic, and the upsurge of the bubonic plague over several centuries, should entertain you, perhaps seeing yourselves as the victims of past pandemics, as you are now of the present one. For though circumstances and technology have certainly altered our lives over the past century, our knowledge of how to directly kill or wisely control a rogue invisible coronavirus still eludes our medical mastery.
Conrad Miller MD © 2020
Can you please explain why we haven.t seen an explosion of cases coming forth from the riots at various cities over past few months certainly the images we see majority of people are not wearing facial protection nor maintaining any social distancing, can you also explain the assertion by Harvard school epidemiology about 90% false positive PCR testing given high cycle past 40 testing when we know that past 33 the chance of infection is minimal to none. Thank you