“If you are going to places where there are a lot of people, you know, just (do) simple things — like washing your hands before and after you go into that place,” said Dr. Sean O’Leary, an associate professor of pediatric infectious disease at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. “All of those are fairly straight forward measures. As time goes on … we may see more recommendations for social distancing.”
Thomas Jaenisch, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Colorado School of Public Health, said that he believes the state’s dry and warm summer climate could help contain the coronavirus’ spread during the upcoming warmer seasons. “I think this is something that is reasonable to speculate,” Jaenisch said.
Dr. Michelle Barron, an infectious disease specialist at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital, on Wednesday likened preparing for the spread of the new strain of coronavirus within the United States to preparing for a hefty winter snowstorm. “It’s appropriate to say we will probably see more cases in the U.S. and throughout the world, but I don’t think that should set off an alarm,” said Barron, the medical director of infection control and prevention at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital.
Colorado’s altitude can affect all types of performers, including “Phantom of the Opera” stars and Kristin Chenoweth. “For most people, it doesn’t make a difference,” said James Maloney, a pulmonologist with UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital [and professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine]. “We acclimatize and that means with time, our body adjusts to the lower oxygen level.”
Aurora’s giant employers: Aurora’s aspirations are not lost on Don Elliman, chancellor of CU’s Anschutz Medical Campus. The veteran magazine publisher and former state official said he recognizes that Aurora for years “bristled at being Denver’s poor neighbor." "And it’s still got plenty of issues,” he said. “We happen to be situated smack in the middle of three of the poorest zip codes in the state of Colorado, and we’re very mindful of that fact. We don’t want to be a house on the hill.” Elliman said CU Anschutz has a $2.4 billion annual budget and 2.1 million outpatient visits on campus each year, and it’s still growing on its 578-acre campus. It also has programs that hire people from surrounding neighborhoods and a community clinic provides free care.
Colorado doctors have been prescribing fewer pain pills, and rules regarding such prescriptions have evolved rapidly over the past 5 years, including requirements that doctors check a database that lists all of a patient’s prescriptions, said Robert Valuck, executive director of the Colorado Consortium for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention and a doctor at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus. “It’s like turning a giant ocean liner around very quickly,” Valuck said. “It doesn’t turn on a dime.”
It’s still seen as shameful and deficient of moral character to be depressed,” said Dr. Spero Manson, director for the Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health at the University of Colorado.
In an effort to prevent suicides, local researchers at the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus have identified 62 locations in the state where a person can temporarily store their firearms outside of the home during a mental health crisis. Faculty with the Colorado School of Public Health and the CU School of Medicine created an online map of those locations that can be used for residents looking for a place to temporarily store their guns.
