The University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus went to work across its vast network of idled labs and educational facilities, collecting more than 36,600 masks, 47,500 disposable lab gowns, 245,000 pairs of gloves and 50 cases of disinfectant wipes. The CU School of Dental Medicine pitched in with 130,000 pairs of gloves, 45,000 gowns and 35,000 masks.
The daily stress of the current pandemic, and the isolating measures taken to combat it, make impulse control increasingly difficult, said Dr. Steven Berkowitz, a child psychiatrist at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
Dr. Hillary Lum, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, said people should make decisions based on their perception of the quality of life. “The questions about a do not resuscitate order are emotional and important to have accurate information,” Lum said. “Thinking about whether someone wants a do-not-resuscitate or not should be related to what is the likelihood of that procedure being beneficial to a person who restarts their heart and lungs but also return to a life that they value.”
The differences in the models is driven in part by the type of data they use in their projections. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation model largely relies on death and hospitalization data. Whereas the state’s model relies on case data, said Elizabeth Carlton, assistant professor at the Colorado School of Public Health.
“The orders to quarantine, shelter in place, isolate seemed pretty counterintuitive to everything we’ve been taught, which is to gather, commune and connect,” says Meghan White, the alumni and volunteer coordinator at CeDAR, the University of Colorado Health’s Center for Dependency, Addiction and Rehabilitation at the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora.
Colorado has released new COVID-19 modeling data developed by a team that includes experts from state agencies, as well as the University of Colorado School of Medicine at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus, and the University of Colorado in Denver and Boulder.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis says the state has slowed the rate of COVID-19 transmission from doubling every two days to doubling every five days. “It wouldn't be so good to peak in mid-April," said Kathryn Colborn, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Colborn is the director of Surgical Outcomes and Applied Research at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus.
The Colorado School of Public Health (ColoradoSPH) assembled an expert team to assist the CDPHE in understanding the potential course of the COVID-19 pandemic in Colorado. A team of volunteer experts modeled the COVID-19 pandemic by using approaches tailored to Colorado specifically. The modeling is updated as the disease continues to spread.
