As Wildfire Fighters Battle Blazes, More Are Hit By Covid Than Last Year

Stateline: COVID Hits Wildfire Fighters Even Harder Than Last Year
As wildfires rage across Western states, flattening rural towns and forcing thousands of people to evacuate, coronavirus cases and pandemic-related supply chain problems have made it harder to deploy firefighting resources to where they’re needed, fire officials say. More firefighters appear to be falling ill with COVID-19 and quarantining this year than last year, the officials say, because of the highly contagious delta variant and mixed adherence to COVID-19 safety measures such as masking, vaccinations and social distancing. “Last year, I actually was incredibly, pleasantly surprised by how little COVID it seemed like we had,” said Melissa Baumann, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees’ Forest Service Council. Her union represents U.S. Forest Service employees, including wildland firefighters who work for the agency. (Quinton, 9/15)

In other news about the spread of the coronavirus —

USA Today: Americans Believe Worst Of Pandemic Is Yet To Come, Poll Says
More than a year and a half into the COVID-19 pandemic, most Americans believe the coronavirus remains a major threat to public health and the U.S. economy, according to a Pew Research Center report released Wednesday. Despite widespread vaccination efforts, 54% of U.S. adults say the worst of the outbreak is still to come. The report, based on a survey of 10,348 U.S. adults conducted Aug. 23-29, 2021, found 73% of those ages 18 and older say they’ve received at least one dose of a vaccine for COVID-19. (Bacon, Santucci and Hauck, 9/15)

AP: Virus Surge Twice As Bad In Reno As Vegas; Hospitals Filling
Nevada’s hospital association urged residents Wednesday to stay out of emergency rooms except in true emergencies, especially in northern Nevada where a resurgence in COVID-19 cases continues at a rate twice as high as the Las Vegas area. “Many hospital emergency departments in northern Nevada are at capacity with patients,” said Pat Kelly, president and CEO of the Nevada Hospital Association. (Sonner, 9/16)

Salt Lake Tribune: Intermountain Healthcare Is Overstating ICU Capacity Problems, Utah Lawmaker Says
A Utah Republican lawmaker made an inaccurate claim that the shortage of ICU beds in Utah hospitals was not because of the COVID-19 pandemic but partly because of bad business decisions. Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield made the comment during a hearing on what lawmakers could do to thwart President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for businesses. Ray was riffing on whether people should be required to be vaccinated. “It’s a person’s choice. If you choose not to get vaccinated, you get sick and you die. That’s on you. That’s your call,” Ray said. Unprompted, Ray shifted to the reports that ICU beds in Utah were beyond capacity because unvaccinated people were being hospitalized due to the runaway spread of the delta variant. (Schott, 9/15)

Detroit Free Press: 'Perfect Storm' Has Beaumont Emergency Rooms Nearly Full
Beaumont Health announced Wednesday that all of its 10 emergency departments are nearly full, and officials are urging patients to consider all options for treatment and evaluation, such as urgent care and their primary care physician, when appropriate. The health system, like others in Michigan and nationwide, is experiencing more patients overall and staffing shortages and has temporarily closed about 180 beds (just over 5% of its total beds) because of a lack of staffing. (Hall, 9/15)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: ICUs Still Full, Ambulances Strained Across Georgia
The state’s health care system continues to operate in crisis mode as hospital intensive care units still overflow with gravely ill patients, even though COVID-19 admissions have declined since hitting a pandemic peak in early September. The high demand for critical care has pushed hospitals to try to limit ambulance traffic to their severely crowded emergency departments. The result: frequent scenes of ambulances piling up outside ERs, as EMS workers keep caring for patients on stretchers and listening to radio calls they can’t quickly respond to. (Teegardin and Berard, 9/15)

Oklahoman: Another Oklahoma County Jail Inmate Dies After Positive COVID-19 Test
Oklahoma County jail inmate Leo Alexander Destea died at a hospital Tuesday night. Destea tested postive for COVID-19 in early August and was quarantined at the jail. He was hospitalized Aug. 30 after developing trouble breathing. He died Tuesday night. The jail announced the death Wednesday morning in a news release. The state medical examiner’s office will make a final determination as to the cause of death, the jail's communications director said. (Clay, 9/15)

WMFE: Infant Is Likely Orange County's Youngest Fatality With COVID-19
A infant has died with COVID-19 in Orange County, one of 56 deaths related to the virus reported iby the county since Sept. 9. “The age range for the deaths was 0 to 95. That means someone younger than 1. And we will not give any details about that individual at all. Because it’s just one single case. And it could be easily identified,” says Dr. Raul Pino, the county's Department of Health medical director. Pino says he believes the baby is the youngest person to die with COVID in the county. (Prieur, 9/15)

Also —

CIDRAP: Face Coverings Offer Modest Source Control For COVID-19, Study Finds
Cloth or surgical facial masks reduced SARS-CoV-2 RNA 77% in exhaled coarse aerosol particles and 48% in exhaled fine aerosol particles, offering "modest" source control, according to a Clinical Infectious Diseases study yesterday. The study also found that the Alpha (B117) COVID-19 variant contained 43-fold more fine-aerosol viral RNA compared with earlier virus strains. The study used breath samples collected using a Gesundheit II machine, which was developed by senior study author Donald Milton, MD, PhD, of the University of Maryland. The machine measures viral shedding in exhaled breaths during talking and other vocalizations. "Source control" refers to covering the mouth and nose to reduce expelled pathogens and thus the likelihood of disease transmission. (9/15)

Axios: NIH Launches Massive Project To Study Long COVID 
The National Institute of Health is launching a nationwide series of studies with as many as 40,000 people to research the long-term effects of COVID-19. COVID symptoms that last more than four weeks, usually referred to as long COVID, have become an emerging public health concern as researchers do not know the cause. (Fernandez, 9/15)

KHN: When Covid Deaths Are Dismissed Or Stigmatized, Grief Is Mixed With Shame And Anger
Months after Kyle Dixon died, his old house in Lanse, Pennsylvania, is full of reminders of a life cut short. His tent and hiking boots sit on the porch where he last put them. The grass he used to mow has grown tall in his absence. And on the kitchen counter, there are still bottles of the over-the-counter cough medicine he took to try to ease his symptoms at home as covid-19 began to destroy his lungs. (Sholtis, 9/16)