LA COVID SPIKE PREDICTION The Louisiana Legislature’s special session has been underway for a few days and committee meetings have been taking place this week as lawmakers question the state’s response to the Coronavirus, in particular Governor John Bel Edwards’ Emergency Mitigation Orders as businesses have had to shut down or operate at limited capacities which affects the economy, employment rates and tax revenues. During a Louisiana House Education Committee meeting in Baton Rouge yesterday, the state’s top Public Health Officer Dr. Jimmy Guidry got grilled by panel members about mitigation measures affecting businesses, schools, and limited attendance at sporting events,.
"I predict there's going to be another spike and it's going to be in flu season," Dr. Guidry said. "And we're going to see as much if not more than what we saw in the spring."
During his testimony- Dr. Guidry addressed perceptions some people may have in thinking that Covid-19 is no worse than the flu.
"People say it's not any worse than the flu, you don't really know that, it hasn't been really long enough to know that because it's a new virus." Dr. Jimmy Guidry, State Health Officer of Louisiana
"People say it's not any worse than the flu, you don't really know that, it hasn't been really long enough to know that because it's a new virus," Guidry explained. "It has some effects on people, once they get an infection, weeks later, months later, it starts showing up in their hearts, it starts showing up in their kidneys. And so we do not know at this point in time what this virus brings to us."
As to curbing Covid19, Dr. Guidry pointed out that while health experts learn more about the illness every day; he did say the mitigation measures used now have a historical context, using the painful lessons learned during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918.
"When you look at 1918, I hate to go back to that but that's what people did, they got comfortable and said not a big deal," Guidry said. "They had another spike which was almost double what the original spike because they stopped doing things that protected people,"
Governor John Bel Edwards moved Louisiana into Phase 3 reopening as the state's infection and hospitalization rates improved. While some businesses such as restaurants have been allowed to increase occupancy up to 75%, crowd restrictions of 25% remain for sporting events and most bars remain closed. The Phase 3 Order is set to expire October 9th.
