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. 2020 Apr 9;15(1):26.
doi: 10.1186/s13017-020-00304-5.

COVID-19 the showdown for mass casualty preparedness and management: the Cassandra Syndrome

Federico Coccolini  1 , Massimo Sartelli  2 , Yoram Kluger  3 , Emmanouil Pikoulis  4 , Evika Karamagioli  5 , Ernest E Moore  6 , Walter L Biffl  7 , Andrew Peitzman  8 , Andreas Hecker  9 , Mircea Chirica  10 , Dimitrios Damaskos  11 , Carlos Ordonez  12 , Felipe Vega  13 , Gustavo P Fraga  14 , Massimo Chiarugi  15 , Salomone Di Saverio  16   17 , Andrew W Kirkpatrick  18 , Fikri Abu-Zidan  19 , Alain Chicom Mefire  20 , Ari Leppaniemi  21 , Vladimir Khokha  22 , Boris Sakakushev  23 , Rodolfo Catena  24 , Raul Coimbra  25 , Luca Ansaloni  26 , Davide Corbella  27 , Fausto Catena  24
Affiliations

COVID-19 the showdown for mass casualty preparedness and management: the Cassandra Syndrome

Federico Coccolini et al. World J Emerg Surg. .

Abstract

Since December 2019, the world is potentially facing one of the most difficult infectious situations of the last decades. COVID-19 epidemic warrants consideration as a mass casualty incident (MCI) of the highest nature. An optimal MCI/disaster management should consider all four phases of the so-called disaster cycle: mitigation, planning, response, and recovery. COVID-19 outbreak has demonstrated the worldwide unpreparedness to face a global MCI.This present paper thus represents a call for action to solicitate governments and the Global Community to actively start effective plans to promote and improve MCI management preparedness in general, and with an obvious current focus on COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; Coronavirus; Criticalities; Epidemia; Management; Mass casualties; Pademia; Resource; WSES.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors declare to have no competing interests

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