Proning and COVID-19?  What IS proning? Or the prone position?

Whenever I say prone position, I think back to when I was a cadet at West Point and had to shoot my M-16 from the prone position. I had to hit a certain number of targets (twice) as it was a graduation requirement. Of course, when it comes to proning and COVID-19, I’m not talking about firing any weapons.

On a recent episode of my podcast, Causes or Cures, I chatted with Dr. Sandra Zaeh, a lung specialist at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland, who explains how proning is saving the lives of COVID-19 patients. I find it fascinating, because it’s a very, VERY cost-effective intervention that could keep people alive, not just in rich countries but in poor ones too. It could also free up ventilators faster, a significant factor during a pandemic!

In the podcast, Dr. Zaeh explains what proning is, the theory behind it, the ideal COVID-19 patients for it, and how it’s done. I tried to ensure that this was  We also discuss the research for proning and COVID-19 patients, and…for the nerds, I follow up in the podcast conclusion with some specific data.

I think stuff like this is important to keep in mind, not just for COVID-19 patients, but perhaps anyone with serious breathing issues. I also think it’s especially important given the recent uptick in COVID-19 cases, a high percentage of which are caused by the new and more infectious variants. For example, I’m watching the P1 variant ( 35 mutations and otherwise known as the Brazilian variant) very closely. It seems to be significantly more severe in healthy, young people, and scientists are trying to figure out why. To give you an idea, the number of Brazilians aged 18-45 who ended up in the ICU tripled between their first and second wave, and the death rate increased by 193%! The P1 variant IS in the US. Based on the CDC’s latest numbers, there are 118 reported cases of P1 in the US, with the most being in Florida, Illinois, Mass and California. That is concerning, so it’s not a good time to relax on public health measures, guys.

That said, please click here to listen to my podcast on proning and COVID-19.

Please feel free to subscribe, share it and rate my podcast! That stuff helps other people find it. :)

Other COVID-19/pandemic topics you might be interested in:

COVID-19: Everything you need to know about the vaccines, simplified. 

Why is no one talking about how fat and unhealthy we are during this pandemic?!?  Watch the video! :)