Aug 04 2020 88 mins
With Coronavirus cases still on the rise, a key debate in the United States is if schools should open or not.
To help answer this question, the DadCorp Podcast is joined by Dr. Suraj Saggar, an infectious disease specialist and physician who was on the front lines of the COVID-19 virus in New Jersey. He is a wealth of knowledge on the subject and even provides regular medical updates on FOX 5 News in New York.
Dr. Saggar’s New Jersey facility was in the epicenter of the virus. His team experienced the dangers of COVID-19 first-hand. He discussed the subsequent PTSD they all faced. He compared the onset of the virus at their hospital as a Tsunami. Patients would go from stable to escalated in hours. Dr. Saggar and his colleagues would enter the facility every day to around 60 people on ventilators knowing the survival rate would be around 20%. He describes the personal pain of witnessing young patients in their 30s or 40s asking to Facetime their children to say goodbye.
As a father of an 11-year-old son, he describes how difficult it was to be present during those months for fear of bringing the virus home to his family. He slept in a different room, used a different shower and didn’t start wearing street clothes again at work until June.
The question becomes: With the Coronavirus still out there, are we better prepared now to start sending our children back to school? Dr. Saggar asserts the importance of taking emotion out of the equation and focusing on the science.
Dr. Saggar explains that in order to feel comfortable with his own child returning to school he would pay close attention to the guidelines that the education system is putting in place. Whether or not kids are wearing masks, if desks are placed six feet apart and adequate air filtration systems are some of the key factors. He asserted that we have a better understanding of the disease, more access to testing and effective treatments. He explains that the existence of t-cells in your body might be plausible to protect you and have become the source of a lot research and optimism among the scientific community towards reaching the ultimate goal of herd immunity.
In addition to his regular segments on FOX 5 News in New York, you can find Dr. Suraj Saggar on Youtube by searching his name as well as Instagram, LinkedIn and his own podcast. He co-hosts a medical podcast called Recommended Daily Dose with his colleague Dr. Clenton Coleman. They seek to put a unique spin on healthcare by incorporating humor and both of their own diverse backgrounds.
3 Key Takeaways from the Discussion:
1. COVID-19 is not a hoax. As someone who was on the front lines and experienced first-hand the effects of this disease, Dr. Saggar described the virus's devastation. When things don’t directly affect us, we tend to not completely understand them. We need to gather knowledge and look at the perspectives from our health heroes in the field.
2. When considering whether kids should go back to school in the fall, the focus needs to be on science. Although we understand the quarantine fatigue and desire to return to normal life, the emotion needs to be removed. Instead, we must look at the cases in each specific area as well as factor in all the important preventative methods.
3. We are better prepared now in dealing with COVID-19 but that does not mean that the virus is gone. With more access to testing and a better understanding of the different distinct phases of the virus, physicians are better equipped than they were months ago. We know now that masks and social distancing are still important to help prevent the spread of the virus.