Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Simmering Anger And A Sense Of Betrayal: Health Workers 'Livid' Over Government's Response To Crisis, Lack Of Gear
Stat: Doctors Fume At Government Response To Coronavirus Pandemic
Even before the pandemic, burnout, anxiety, and disillusionment were already endemic in the medical community. Then came the hit-or-miss response to Covid-19, which has left U.S. health workers exposed to infection — and ill-prepared to care for thousands of vulnerable patients. Now, there’s simmering anger, and a deep sense of betrayal among health professionals who say they feel forsaken by their government. (Keshavan, 4/9)
NPR: Health Care Workers Stressed By Equipment Shortages, Infection Threat
At one New York City hospital a doctor's used mask tore as she performed CPR on her infected patient. In Seattle, a nurse compares walking into her intensive care unit to bathing in COVID-19. And in St. Louis, a nurse slips her used N95 mask into a paper bag at the end of her shift and prays that it's disinfected properly. (Stone and Fadel, 4/9)
Reuters: U.S. Nurses Who Can't Get Tested Fear They Are Spreading COVID-19
In New York City, an intensive care nurse treated patients for three days after she started displaying symptoms of COVID-19 - but couldn’t get a test from her hospital. In Georgia, a nurse was denied a test after treating an infected patient who died. In Michigan, one of the few hospital systems conducting widespread staff testing found that more than 700 workers were infected with the coronavirus - more than a quarter of those tested. (Borter, 4/8)
The New York Times: Volunteers Rushed To Help New York Hospitals. They Found A Bottleneck.
When Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo called for medical workers around the country to come to New York last month and join the fight against the coronavirus, Bevin Strickland was ready to help. Ms. Strickland, a former pediatric intensive care unit nurse in High Point, N.C., spent hours trying to submit her volunteer application online, and then emailed city and state representatives. She never heard back. Frustrated, she reached out directly to Mount Sinai Queens hospital in New York City. A manager told her to use a private recruiting agency, which the hospital had used for years to bring in temporary staff. (Hong, 4/8)
The Washington Post: Medical Volunteers For New York City Hospitals Wait For Assignments
Every day, he goes online and checks his messages again and again, and every day is the same: no response. George Weinhouse, a 67-year-old retired anesthesiologist, answered the call weeks ago for volunteers with medical experience to help New York weather the worst pandemic since 1918. Weinhouse stepped out of his comfortable post-career life, submitted his registration and credentials, and waited. Even as the coronavirus crisis approaches its peak in New York, straining the medical system like no other previous disaster, he’s still waiting. (Babb, 4/8)
Reuters: Young Doctors Brave Overwhelming Coronavirus Crisis
For young doctors like 26-year-old Christian Vigil, battling on the frontline against the new coronavirus is a journey back in time to an era they can scarcely imagine. “We feel like doctors a century ago when we didn’t have antibiotics,” said Vigil, who works in intensive care at Madrid’s overloaded October 12 Hospital. He, like other doctors and nurses of his generation, trained in an age when medicine is at the peak of its powers, with a huge arsenal of life-saving treatments and equipment. (Landauro, 4/9)
Politico: New York City's Medical Examiner Goes On A Mortuary Hiring Spree
New York City’s economy may have all but vanished in the age of coronavirus, but there remains at least one bright spot in the job market: mortuary work. Since March 23, New York City has posted at least 44 job openings for mortuary technicians and medicolegal investigators, the latter a job that entails conducting “death investigations.” (Rubinstein, 4/8)
The New York Times: Eight U.K. Doctors Died From Coronavirus. All Were Immigrants.
The eight men moved to Britain from different corners of its former empire, all of them doctors or doctors-to-be, becoming foot soldiers in the effort to build a free universal health service after World War II. Now their names have become stacked atop a grim list: the first, and so far only, doctors publicly reported to have died after catching the coronavirus in Britain’s aching National Health Service. For a country ripped apart in recent years by Brexit and the anti-immigrant movement that birthed it, the deaths of the eight doctors — from Egypt, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Sudan — attest to the extraordinary dependence of Britain’s treasured health service on workers from abroad. (Mueller, 4/8)
ABC News: Making 'PPE' At Home: Families Use 3D Printers To Address Coronavirus Shortages
In basements and garages across America, a cottage industry of 3D printing is gaining steam to fight the novel coronavirus. Entire families, from Louisiana to Montana, are forming in-home production lines for personal protective equipment for hospital workers and public safety officers that’s been in short supply during the coronavirus pandemic. (Dwyer and Yoo, 4/9)
NBC News: Coronavirus: 9 Ways To Help Doctors, Nurses And Hospital Workers Right Now
As hospital employees and care providers on the front lines battle the coronavirus pandemic, the rest of us search for ways to help provide the supplies and support they need. “We’re in uncharted waters,” Dr. Kate Tulenko, the CEO of Corvus Health, says. “The U.S might be able to do heart transplants and other great things, but our doctors can’t get masks right now. Hospitals are completely unprepared for this pandemic and are begging for help.” While the average person cannot provide the things hospitals in the thick of COVID-19 most desperately need, such as intensive care unit beds and ventilators, physicians on the front lines insist that there are still steps we can take to be of service. (Spector, 4/8)
CNN: Detroit Hospital Workers Describe Working Conditions During Covid-19 Crisis
A Detroit hospital has been so overwhelmed by the influx of Covid-19 patients that at least 2 people have died in its emergency room hallways before help can arrive, health care workers there told CNN. CNN spoke with five hospital workers at Sinai-Grace Hospital, part of the Detroit Medical Center system, who said staff members feel they don't have enough coworkers or supplies to deal with the crisis. (Murphy and Waldrop, 4/9)
State House News Service: Lawmakers To Field COVID-19 Liability Legislation
Gov. Charlie Baker is filing legislation Wednesday afternoon that would extend liability protection to health care workers during the coronavirus pandemic to address a fear of some front-line medical personnel who are being asked to work in abnormal conditions, according to an administration source. (Murphy, 4/8)
PBS NewsHour: This ER Doctor Survived COVID-19. Here’s Her Advice
New York state has roughly 150,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19. That's more than any country in the world other than the United States. Health care workers in New York are feeling the pressure of the pandemic -- as well as concerns for their own wellbeing. (Nawaz, 4/8)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: EMS Shortage A Growing Concern As Georgia Cases Surge
While EMS agencies say they are doing their best to protect their crews, they say they are not getting resources provided to other health care providers to help respond to the crisis. As a result, concerns are rising to a fever pitch that so many medics will become sick or ordered into isolation that there won’t be enough left to respond to emergency calls. (Berard, 4/8)
WBUR: Frontline Health Care Workers, Bracing For A Surge, Issue Another Plea For Help To Gov. Baker
More than 900 doctors, nurses, physician assistants and other caregivers have signed a second petition to Gov. Charlie Baker demanding more help as the number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 climbs and more hospital staff test positive for the coronavirus. There are over 1,000 such cases among hospitals reporting their staff infection numbers to WBUR. (Bebinger, 4/8)
Las Vegas Review-Journal: Some Hotels Opening Doors To Health Care Workers, First Responders Amid Virus Spread
As hotel rooms across the country sit empty amid the COVID-19 pandemic, some operators are offering their properties to health care workers and first responders looking for a place to rest away from home. Las Vegas-based Diamond Resorts announced late last month that all open, Diamond-managed properties would offer complimentary accommodations to medical personnel and first responders. That offer includes Polo Towers, Cancun Resort and Desert Paradise Resort in Las Vegas. (Schultz, 4/8)
Stat: With Diving Gear And Plumbing Supplies, Labs Respond To Covid-19
In early March, Stanford bioengineer Manu Prakash was attending a conference in southern France and becoming increasingly concerned about the coronavirus outbreak, which was then already sweeping through Europe. “I’d seen what was happening in Italy. Coming back to the U.S., it dawned on me that we were not ready,” he said. Once home, Prakash developed Covid-19 symptoms severe enough that he spent a day in the emergency room. (He was not tested and has since recovered.) (McFarling, 4/9)
