31 Comments
Apr 16, 2020Liked by Tony Mecia, Cristina Bolling

Thank you Tony for your efforts in keeping us informed and providing invaluable information. We appreciate your support of the Charlotte community as well as Dr. Ahmed's willingness to participate online with us. Thank you both!

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Our time has drawn to a close – thank you to everybody for participating. And a big thank you also to Atrium Health and Dr. Ahmed for your time this morning. Stay safe, everybody.

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My husband and I are trying to limit trips out in public to just one trip to the grocery every 1 to 2 weeks. I'm wondering what steps you take to be safe when you have to make those types of trips out? We use a face mask, wipe our hands before we go in, do our shopping, grab a wipe on the way out, then wash our hands at home, unpack our groceries, and wash our hands again. Are we doing it right?

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Dr. Ahmed, what are some of the most common misconceptions that you hear about the coronavirus?

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OK, Dr. Ahmed is online. Thank you for your patience. She's working to answer the questions that have been posted.

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Still working to get Dr. Ahmed online here - hold tight, we're working on it. Appreciate your patience

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Dr. Ahmed, thank you for doing this Q&A. I have 3 children, and they are getting stir-crazy without being able to see their friends. My youngest child, age 8, has been wanting to play outside, to 'chalk-the-sidewalk' with her friends and things like that, but I wonder if you'd advise against having kids play outside together?

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Dr. Ahmed, are you with us?

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These sometimes take a few minutes to get going as people come in

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Good morning. This is Tony Mecia with The Charlotte Ledger. This morning, we are holding a Q&A with Dr. Amina Ahmed of Atrium Health. She is an infectious disease expert.

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Being a coronavirus, which notoriously mutate frequently, can we ever really have a true vaccine? Or is an effective drug therapy a more reasonable expectation?

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Thank you to everyone who participated. It was a pleasure to join you today. Please continue to practice social distancing and follow all of the guidance relating to washing hands, wearing masks and other protections being advised by health experts.

Our website has a host of resources: www.atriumhealth.org/coronavirus, including symptom checkers and a hotline you can call.

Stay safe and healthy!

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Hello Dr Ahmed I would like to hear what you think about herd immunity and is that possibly what California has as their cases are so much lower than a NY for example and yet they have the most nonstop flights to China in the country? Thanks!

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Dr. Ahmed, I know this may not be your area of expertise, but as a business owner, we are trying to plan for the long term, but with so many competing narratives, it's hard to do. I'm read a lot of articles saying that we should plan for several starts and stops to the outbreak which would correspond to easing stay at home orders and re implementing them when outbreaks pop up again.

What are your thoughts? Is this something that will likely keep popping up until a vaccine is widely available?

Thanks,

Nathan

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Dr. Ahmed, I keep hearing that the peak infection date is moving back, which sounds good because we are flattening the curve, but also makes me wonder if the physical distancing will need to be in place longer than originally envisioned. Do you have a sense of when life might start to return to normal and what that would look like?

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What is the current thinking on the likelihood that the virus could go away on it's own like the seasonal flu? Thank you.

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Seems like there might be some technical difficulties, but I’ll throw this out there and hopefully you’ll get a chance to answer. Obviously we’re all going to great lengths to break chains of transmission of the virus — can you give any kind of definitive answer about how long the virus survives on packaging surfaces? With so many of us depending heavily on deliveries, I’ve had questions from my family about whether we need to be wiping down everything that comes into the house. Thanks!

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Dr. Ahmed, Are you currently seeing patients and how are you protecting yourself from asymptomatic patients? Are you wearing full PPE for all visits? How about your staff?

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Is there any realistic hope of antibody testing becoming available in the near future (or some other way to tell if someone has already had this coronavirus infection?

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