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I am an emergency physician. As this pandemic has unfolded on the global and national scene, my phone has been inundated with texts from other emergency physician friends. They range from the mundane (how much personal protective equipment (PPE) does your hospital have?) to the terrified (I’m pregnant and don’t know if I should be working). And we trade ideas. We talk about what our hospitals are doing, share protocols and discuss different approaches.

As emergency physicians, we know we will be on the front lines of this endeavor. We will be risking our own health and that of our families to provide care to the onslaught of patients that is surely coming. As we wait for the slow freight train that is COVID-19 to near us, tied to the tracks as we seemingly are, we have to prepare for the worst, so we share our thoughts.

At best, this sharing is the country’s bright minds coming together to discuss solutions to a common problem we are all facing. At worst, it resembles planning a child’s birthday party on Pinterest — you look through everyone’s plans, pick the ideas you like and put together your own approach.