Editors Note: This story is from a series appearing in the August 2020 edition of the Rotarian magazine.

Giovanni Cappa
Emergency Room Physician
Rotaract Club of Pavia, Italy

I am a medical resident in one of northern Italy’s university hospitals. We’re a big emergency room, one of the biggest in Italy. We’re at the epicenter of this huge storm.

When the coronavirus hit Italy, the first cases in China had been recorded just two months before. A lot of research came out day by day, so we had briefings every morning. Guidelines about drugs and ventilation parameters would change daily. We would discover new things about the disease’s pathology and have to adapt.

In the first days, we had waves of patients. Many emergency rooms in the region collapsed — hospital personnel got infected, or the hospital didn’t have the ability to accept coronavirus patients. So we received patients from other parts of the region too. We didn’t have space. We had patients everywhere. We set up a new emergency room in a day, but we were lacking things we were used to having, like computers for administering the logistics. That was just a little thing. There were many times we didn’t have enough oxygen supply for everybody.

We had to make many difficult choices. Many coronavirus patients cannot breathe when they come in. They’re in respiratory distress and they need ventilation. We had patients walk into our emergency room and collapse. People were so scared. The small number of beds in intensive care were filled instantly. Coronavirus patients don’t spend one or two nights there; they spend weeks.

We were used to giving all the best medical care to anybody who needed it. That wasn’t the case anymore. We needed to use our resources with common sense. We needed to prioritize care to the people who would survive. It was catastrophic medicine. Shortly after, the Italian society for anesthesiologists published guidelines to help make those decisions.

By Lisa Curtis of the News Graphic

MEQUON — Citing local health data, the Mequon-Thiensville School Board voted unanimously Monday to begin the school year with students learning virtually.

The decision comes less than two weeks before the Sept. 1 start of school and less than two weeks after the board updated its Responsible Return Operating Plan that called for students in the classroom.

But in an announcement released Tuesday, district officials indicated that current health data on the COVID-19 pandemic simply made in-person learning too risky.

“Unfortunately, the current state of COVID-19 community spread in the Mequon-Thiensville ZIP codes reflects high risk for the month of August and as such, the district will begin the 2020-2021 school year having to provide distance learning for all students,” according to a statement from Superintendent Matthew Joynt. “Educators in the Mequon-Thiensville School District are prepared to provide a high quality distance learning experience for our students.”

According to the Washington Ozaukee Public Health Department data, the burden, case status and overall risk for Ozaukee County are all classified as high. As of Wednesday, there were 219 positive COVID19 cases in Mequon and Thiensville.

The board considered four instructional scenarios for reopening:

• On-campus learning for all of its estimated 3,700 students.
• On-campus learning with maximum physical distancing.
• On-campus learning with maximum physical distancing and minimal physical contacts.
• Distance learning for all students.

“Our ability to provide on campus instruction during the 2020-2021 school year remains contingent upon current health data, the district’s ability to implement instructional delivery scenarios and the availability of our staff members and students,” Joynt said.

Joynt said the goal remains a return to on campus instruction for the 2020-21 school year as soon as possible.

“As educators, we believe it is absolutely the best way to deliver a high quality education to all children,” he said. “I also understand that not being able to send students to school may be a burden for some families and we are committed to supporting each family’s needs as best we can.”

The district surveyed parents earlier this month on their preference for their child’s learning conditions and responses were due Aug. 12. The results were not released as of mid-day Wednesday.

“Our ability to provide on campus instruction during the 2020-2021 school year remains contingent upon current health data, the district’s ability to implement instructional delivery scenarios and the availability of our staff members and students.” — Matthew Joynt, superintendent Mequon-Thiensville School District

In the greater Milwaukee area, Milwaukee Public Schools, West Allis-West Milwaukee School District and the Racine Unified School District are all starting the school year online. In the Brown Deer School District, students will learn online, while teachers will report to the classrooms.

In early August, a cluster of new positive cases were linked to young adults attending numerous Homestead High School graduation parties, according to a press release from the health department. In one instance, a positive person attended three separate gatherings.