“In a Week We Will Be Italy”: NYC ER Doctor Says the U.S. Pandemic Will Only Get Worse

“In a Week We Will Be Italy”: NYC ER Doctor Says the U.S. Pandemic Will Only Get Worse

As New York hospitals see a surge in coronavirus cases, medical workers report growing shortages of protective gear, and a nurse who tested positive after treating patients with the highly contagious disease has died. “It’s pretty dire inside New York City hospitals right now,” says New York City emergency room doctor Craig Spencer. “We have a growing number of patients coming in every day with coronavirus. We have people young and old, with complications, without complications, who get put on mechanical ventilators, who get put on life support to help their breathing, who have cardiac arrest. It’s a daily reality for many of my colleagues on the frontline.” Spencer is also a survivor of Ebola, which he contracted while fighting its outbreak in Africa.