I had the opportunity to interview one of the heroes of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Brock Blankenship.
Dr. Blankenship is an emergency room doctor in Abingdon, Virginia as well as a professor of emergency medicine at ETSU’s Quillen College of Medicine.
He also works for the state department and has done stints in Afghanistan and several other countries. He is on their disaster response team.
He recently got back from New York City, serving in the epicenter of this pandemic.
Dr. Blankenship is currently quarantined and was gracious enough to talk with me on our podcast about his experience up in New York City and COVID-19.
First of all, please go listen to this episode. Dr. Blankenship was amazing, and his insight and unique perspective I’m certain will help so many of you.
Listen on Apple Podcasts: Dr. Brock Blankenship on COVID-19 in NYC, Masks, and Testing.
I want to share with you a few of my key takeaways from the interview.
My Takeaways
– One of the main points he made was reduce your risk factors by getting sleep. One of the reasons why healthcare workers are becoming more susceptible is because they are stressed and not getting enough sleep.
– A lot of people, especially the 30-50 age group with COVID-19, are having major problems because their blood is clotting. That is why they are immediately putting these patients on a blood thinner.
– Hospitals are using a lot of High Dose Vitamin C in New York City.
– Remdesivir is the current gold standard of treatment if you’re in the hospital with COVID-19.
– The vitamins Dr. Blankenship is currently taking are similar to what I’ve been recommending: Vitamin C, Zinc, and Vitamin D.
– He believes you DO need to wear a mask when you are out in public.
– Certain areas are more susceptible than others.
– There’s definitely a correlation between obesity and not doing well with this disease.
– He thinks telemedicine will be a big factor in the way we practice medicine in the future due to this pandemic.
– He agrees that we need to start opening up the economy.
The thing I keep hearing from the people closest to the situation like Dr. Blankenship, is this enormous emphasis on taking care of yourself.
It’s what we preach here at Performance Medicine everyday. Take care of your own health.
During this pandemic and once we’re through to the other side of it, take care of yourself so that you can take care of others.