What Do You Get When Anesthesia Residents Party? A Coronavirus Outbreak

More news of anesthesiologists behaving badly. However this is more out of hubris than greed. The University of Florida Health system in Gainesville reported that 18 members of their anesthesiology department came down with the coronavirus after attending a private party. The afflicted include fourteen junior residents, two senior residents, a fellow, and an administrative employee (attending?).

The occasion for the party is vague. Some described it as a farewell party for graduating residents while others say it was a welcoming party for the new residents. It was probably a little of both. What is known is that there were up to 30 members of the department at this party. Afterwards the chairman of the anesthesiology department, Timothy Morey, MD notified the hospital on July 10th that members of the department had come down with Covid.

The hospital had kept a lid on this news until the university's own news organization, Fresh Take Florida, published it this week. It never notified the public or the government out this outbreak. Dr. Morey said all the sickened members were kept home in self quarantine. Because of privacy reasons they will not reveal who attended this party or who got infected.

This goes to show that in a free society it is getting increasingly more difficult to keep people from socializing over a long period of time. Unless we are willing to take drastic measures like China where they literally welded people's doors shut so they can't go out, we will hear more stories of social gatherings and virus outbreaks. Even people who are at the center of this pandemic and have all the information available to them will not be immune to the innate human need to gather and celebrate.