Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Health Workers Share Experiences: 'The Look Of Fear In Many People’s Eyes Will Never Be Erased From My Memory'
The New York Times: In Harm’s Way
As countries ease restrictions on public life, health care workers around the world continue to risk their lives — and those of their families — to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Despite their stoic selfies, they are scared, grief-stricken, guilty they can’t do more. In submissions and interviews, they reflect on what they have witnessed, the decisions they have made and how the pandemic has changed them. The Times will continue adding the stories of frontline health care workers. (5/4)
Kaiser Health News/The Guardian: Lost On The Frontline
An EMT "so focused" on his job. A pediatric nurse who always put herself last. An Air Force veteran who went above and beyond for patients. These are some of the people just added to “Lost on the Frontline,” a special series from The Guardian and KHN that profiles health care workers who die of COVID-19. (5/5)
Stat: Intubation Boxes: Extra Safety Or False Sense Of Security?
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, is so infectious that protecting health care workers from it as they treat patients is an important issue in the fight against this pandemic. Reliable personal protective equipment is central to that cause. But recent innovations, like so-called intubation boxes, could do more harm than good. (Turer, Chang and Ban, 5/5)
KQED: California Hospitals Begin Sterilizing Previously Worn N95 Masks For Reuse, But Nurses Call Them Unsafe
How does California plan to stem a personal protective equipment shortage? Hospitals will sterilize previously worn N95 respirator masks and reuse them. Across California, hospitals are readying machines to spray down masks with disinfectant, but nurses fear wearing previously used respirators may expose them to COVID-19 infection. (Rodriguez, 5/4)
The Associated Press: At Senior Home, Staff Stays Put 24-7 To Stop Virus Spread
As girls, Nadia Williams and her sister spent countless hours imagining their weddings. Now 30, Williams helped her younger sibling plan her big day, but when it came on Friday, she couldn’t be at her side as maid of honor. Instead, she put on a sequined dress, pulled her hair back, held a bouquet, and watched the ceremony alone, via Zoom, from a community for older adults. Williams is among about 70 employees who are sheltering in place alongside more than 500 residents at an upscale assisted-living facility just outside Atlanta. (Thanawala, 5/5)
Modern Healthcare: Testing, PPE Limitations Slow Restart Of Deferred Care
Most healthcare providers are not fully prepared to resume deferred care, citing a lack of COVID-19 testing supplies and personal protective equipment, according to a new survey. Around 60% of 364 frontline healthcare workers surveyed said they are not prepared or only somewhat prepared to take on more non-COVID-19 patients, according to a new poll from Bain & Co. conducted in late April. Around half said they don't have enough tests for caregivers and patients while about a quarter said they don't have enough masks, gloves, face shields, gowns and other PPE. (Kacik, 5/4)
The New York Times: The Morgue Worker Who Buys A Daffodil For Each Body Bag
A few days a week, a woman arrives at the Metropolitan Plant and Flower Exchange — a squat, lime-green bunker along Route 17 North in Paramus, N.J. They know her there by her hospital scrubs. She picks up her standing order: yellow daffodils. If there aren’t any daffodils, she’ll take carnations — yellow, please. That’s the most important part — bright yellow. She brings the flowers with her to work at Hackensack University Medical Center. They aren’t for her office. They’re not for co-workers or patients. She carries them out back and walks into a parking garage. (Wilson, 5/5)
