IMR Press / RCM / Volume 21 / Issue 1 / DOI: 10.31083/j.rcm.2020.01.42
Open Access News and Views
Urgent need for individual mobile phone and institutional reporting of at home, hospitalized, and intensive care unit cases of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) infection
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1 Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75226, USA
2 Baylor Heart and Vascular Institute, Dallas, TX 75226, USA
3 Baylor Jack and Jane Hamilton Heart and Vascular Hospital, Dallas, TX 75226, USA
4 Thomas Jefferson College of Medicine, Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA 19141, USA
5 University of Illinois at Chicago, Advocate Christ Medical Center Oak Lawn, IL 60453, USA
6 Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
7 Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
8 Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA
9 Abrazo Arizona Heart Hospital and Heart Institute in Phoenix, AZ 850169, USA
10 Henry Ford Hospital Detroit, MI 48202, USA
11 Cardiorenal Society of America, Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA
12 University of Texas McGovern Medical School, Houston, TX 77030, USA
13 University of Denver Sturm School of Law, Denver, CO 80210, USA
14 University of Siena, Le Scotte Hospital Viale Bracci Siena Italy, Siena, SI 53100, Italy.
15 Università degli Studi di Padova, PD 35122, Italy
16 University of Padova, Padova, International Renal Research Institute Vicenza, San Bortolo Hospital, Vicenza, VI 36100, Italy
*Correspondence: peteramccullough@gmail.com (Peter A. McCullough)
Rev. Cardiovasc. Med. 2020, 21(1), 1–7; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.rcm.2020.01.42
Submitted: 23 March 2020 | Accepted: 24 March 2020 | Published: 30 March 2020
Copyright: © 2020 McCullough et al. Published by IMR press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Abstract

Approximately 90 days of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) spreading originally from Wuhan, China, and across the globe has led to a widespread chain of events with imminent threats to the fragile relationship between community health and economic health. Despite near hourly reporting on this crisis, there has been no regular, updated, or accurate reporting of hospitalizations for COVID-19. It is known that many test-positive individuals may not develop symptoms or have a mild self-limited viral syndrome consisting of fever, malaise, dry cough, and constitutional symptoms. However some individuals develop a more fulminant syndrome including viral pneumonia, respiratory failure requiring oxygen, acute respiratory distress syndrome requiring mechanical ventilation, and in substantial fractions leading to death attributable to COVID-19. The pandemic is evolving in a clustered, non-inform fashion resulting in many hospitals with preparedness but few or no cases, and others that are completely overwhelmed. Thus, a considerable risk of spread when personal protection equipment becomes exhausted and a large fraction of mortality in those not offered mechanical ventilation are both attributable to a crisis due to maldistribution of resources. The pandemic is amenable to self-reporting through a mobile phone application that could obtain critical information on suspected cases and report on the results of self testing and actions taken. The only method to understand the clustering and the immediate hospital resource needs is mandatory, uniform, daily reporting of hospital censuses of COVID-19 cases admitted to hospital wards and intensive care units. Current reports of hospitalizations are delayed, uncertain, and wholly inadequate. This paper urges all the relevant stakeholders to take up self-reporting and reporting of hospitalizations of COVID-19 as an urgent task in combating this devastating pandemic.

Keywords
SARS-CoV-2
COVID-19
hospitalization
critical care
mortality
epidemiology
reporting
public health
resource utilization
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