Transcript: 'Mardi Gras was perfect storm for spread of this virus' (Rebekah Gee on Rachel Maddow Show 3/24)

(Video at bottom of post)
(Update March 28, now Maddow show transcripts are all up on her site, when I posted this there was only one from February. So good for them for putting transcribers back to work, I won't be doing any more Maddow clips for this project, will focus on info that is not available in print anywhere.)
(The Covid-19 Transcripts)  
RM: Two weeks ago the great state of Louisiana had zero cases of COVID-19.  Now the number of cases in Louisiana has risen faster than anywhere else known in the world.  Louisiana has gone from zero cases to one thousand three hundred and eighty eight cases in two weeks.  The New Orleans metropolitan area now has more cases than Los Angeles county which has a population twenty six times as large  as New Orleans.  The governor asking for disaster declaration.  …The Governor of Louisiana is warning now that per state projections for the city of New Orleans current of hospitalization significantly exceed capacity beginning on April 4, 2020, which means New Orleans won't be able to continue to provide hospital care at the end of next week.  Some Louisiana officials say that Mardi Gras celebrations last month may have been a sort of virological accellerant in Louisiana.  When one point four million people flooded into the city to party and parade in the streets at a time when we now know Coronavirus was spreading in the United States.  Among doctors worried Mardi Gras in New Orleans this year may have been that kind of a problem is Dr. Rebekah Gee. I appreciate you making time tonight thank you. 
*

RM: What do you make of the projection that New Orleans hospital capacity may be overtopped by next week?

RG:  As you just mentioned Mardi Gras was the perfect storm for spread of this virus.  We now know that this virus is incredibly infectious. You can get it not just from coughing or sneezing on someone but breathing or standing next to them.  Not only do we have people in floats but people in parties, people from all over the world came then left and spread the virus to other parts.

So we have documentation that the virus was here at that time, and unfortunately people were throwing beads and sharing drinks, not only throwing beads but likely throwing COVID 19 and people were catching that when they came here for the celebration.

So because of that we have the worst problem in terms of the number of cases moving past at sixty eight percent increase in two weeks, which is higher than L.A.  and higher than Italy.  And so the projections are real projections based on the experience of other places and need to be taken seriously.

(Later in program:)

RM:  We hear about shortages of equipment, nurses not having access to enough masks, nurses worried about not being able to protect themselves and potentially bringing this home to their families.  Does the state have a handle on those problems that are already manifesting in wards around the state?

RG:  well this is a big problem and it really is a supply chain problem.  Normally you have supply chain from China that allows hospitals to get what they need but now it's disrupted.

You have individuals who are price gouging, buying up hundreds of thousands or a million masks in one case last week, much of week I spent sourcing masks, and that disrupts the normal supply chain.

That being said, people are resorting in New Orleans now to making masks in a local furniture store, we're using three D printers to print face screens and right now things are okay.  But the estimates are that we're about four days out from being out of personal protective equipment and today people are re-using their PPE and masks, being instructed to in some settings put them in a paper bag at the end of the day and reuse it the next day, and that would never happen in normal conditions.

*

Dr. Rebekah Gee was recently head of Louisiana's Health Department and is now CEO of their Health Care Services Division.

*

Transcribed by Winging It Transcripts.  If you appreciate this work, please click some cash into my PayPal account at left. 

*

Kay Ebeling

*
?? Since there is No Work on my transcribing job for TV production, I've decided to start on my own producing transcripts of NEWS CLIPS about COVID-19 in USA. Any requests??
I see that Rachel Maddow show transcripts are a year behind on their website and there are No Transcripts online for many shows, also some friends can't stream due to wifi connections. So I'm about to start a new project, in part to keep my skills up, in part to donate to the world the way retired docs and nurses are coming back to work for crisis.
*
First one is here from Rachel Maddow Show last night :50 mins into the show.

*
"New Orleans won't be able to continue to provide hospital care at the end of next week. Some Louisiana officials say that Mardi Gras celebrations last month may have been a sort of virological accellerant in Louisiana."

Now you can read transcripts of all Maddow's shows here http://www.msnbc.com/transcripts/rachel-maddow-show/2020/2
-ke