Diving in the Era of COVID-19
Douglas Ebersole, MD
RAID Medical Advisor
April 2020
I come to you as a recreational and technical diving instructor, as a physician consultant for Divers Alert Network, as the medical advisor for RAID and as a COVID-19 survivor. For me, was just an occupational hazard. I tested positive for COVID-19 after seeing a patient in my cardiology clinic for an unrelated condition who seemed quite short of breath. He was admitted to the ICU and tested positive for COVID-19. Thankfully, he did not require a ventilator and recovered after approximately two weeks in the hospital.

While this is a horrific global event, the diving industry will come out the other side. When we do, how do we safely get people diving? This is a multifactorial issue, involving dive shops, dive charters, instructors and the individual diver/student.