An Ear, Nose, and Throat Doctor on What’s To Come
And how to assess the news that curves may be flattening
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Is the curve flattening? Now what? Dr. Kenny Lin, an ear, nose, and throat specialist looks at what the latest data suggestions. He writes:
In my sub-specialty of Otolaryngology (ear, nose, and throat), procedures of the upper airway are particularly high-risk for COVID transmission. For the same reasons we swab the back of your nose when testing for COVID — a high concentration of the virus lives in the respiratory epithelial tissue — we may be exposed when operating in the nose or throat. In Wuhan, China, a COVID-positive patient undergoing trans-nasal pituitary surgery infected all 14 member of the staff that entered the operating theater. The current recommendation is that all nasal and airway procedures should only be undertaken if truly urgent, or with two negative COVID tests. With the ongoing struggle to test even symptomatic patients, I expect it to be months before we will be able to safely resume our normal clinical practices.
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