This is PediCast.

Welcome to Pediacast, a pediatric podcast for parents.

And now, direct from the campus of nationwide children's, here is your host, Dr. Mike.

Hello, everyone, and welcome. Once again to Pediacast. It is a pediatric podcast for moms and dads.

This is Dr. Mike, coming you from nationwide children's hospital.

We're in Columbus, Ohio.

It's episode 479 for December 9th, 2020.

We're calling this one Holiday Hazards.

I want to welcome all of you to the program.

So we have made it to the final episode of

PDACast for the year 2020. And if you're like me, you're kind of happy that the end of

2020 is right around the corner. I mean, really, 2020 cannot end soon enough. And I think now more than ever, we all just need a fresh start and a little bit of hope.

And there is hope on the horizon in the form of a COVID vaccine, which you can be sure we will be talking about often in 2021.

There's also hope as we learn the best strategies for treating severe COVID infection.

And although the number of cases and the number of deaths has exploded in recent weeks as we

come off of the Thanksgiving Day holiday surge, the relative death rate, so the number of deaths compared to the number

of cases, has really improved quite a bit, which is expected as we learn optimal supportive

care and the right medications to use really the best strategies for treating severe COVID

infection. So the relative number of deaths is better,

although we do have to worry as hospitals fill up, you know, could rationing of care begin?

And could we start to see, you know, more deaths of folks who would not have died had there

been adequate hospital space for them? So that is certainly not a reason the fact that we're getting better at treating severe COVID,

...