An infectious disease expert explains why the new measures in Mass. are crucial for battling coronavirus
David Hamer, an infectious disease doctor at Boston Medical Center and professor of Global Health and Medicine at Boston University Schools of Public Health and Medicine, shares what Massachusetts residents should be focused on, with the new restrictions in place and warnings from officials to avoid all non-essential public activities.
We need to try and slow the pace of the spread of the virus through everything from social distancing to enhanced personal hygiene — containment measures at hospitals and so forth. Because if it were to increase as rapidly as has happened in northern Italy, we could overwhelm our hospital systems and [not just] run out of basic medical supplies, but also run out of beds and ventilators. We’re sort of trying to prepare for that but I think the better thing to do is to try to slow the progress of the epidemic.