COVID-19 the showdown for mass casualty preparedness and management: the Cassandra Syndrome

Abstract

Since December 2019, the world is potentially facing one of the most difficult infectious situations of the last decades. COVID-19 epidemic warrants consideration as a mass casualty incident (MCI) of the highest nature. An optimal MCI/disaster management should consider all four phases of the so-called disaster cycle: mitigation, planning, response, and recovery. COVID-19 outbreak has demonstrated the worldwide unpreparedness to face a global MCI. This present paper thus represents a call for action to solicitate governments and the Global Community to actively start effective plans to promote and improve MCI management preparedness in general, and with an obvious current focus on COVID-19.

COVID-19 Pandemic in Bergamo outbreak: a call to war. Implementation of a “COVID-Hospital” model in ASST Bergamo-Est Trust as a disaster-response strategy.

“…The ASST Bergamo-Est experience corroborates the recent call for action to Governments and Global Community recently promoted by Coccolini et al [4]. Improving and promoting MCI management with a particular focus on current COVID-19 pandemic and possible recurrence seems paramount and sensible.…”

“…In modern era these events have become more frequent also in western societies (e.g. natural disasters, war scenarios, terrorist attacks) so to prompt experts to call for implementation of well coded strategies and guidelines to improve preparedness and coping ability of Health Systems in such scenarios [4][5].…”

“…As a matter of fact, the scale of COVID-19 disaster prompted several authors to advocate for a new MCI level de nition of its own and beyond the Level VI for current pandemic and future similar casualties [4].…”

Pre-hospital care & interfacility transport of 385 COVID-19 emergency patients: An air ambulance perspective.

“…In some countries, the number of serious cases has exceeded the resources available and the health care system's ability to cope. By de nition this is a disaster situation, and the SARS-Cov-2 outbreak has been referred to as a mass casualty incident of the highest degree (1,2).…”

Detect to protect: pneumoperitoneum gas samples for SARS-CoV-2 and biohazard testing

“…In the absence of vaccines or effective drug treatments, it cannot be forecast how long the healthcare system will need to cope with it in managing inpatient and outpatient services [19]. Our duty, as healthcare professionals, is to protect ourselves and our co-workers most rationally and effectively possible [20]. Such an aim can be obtained by increasing and sharing the available knowledge about the disease.…”