Some Health Care Providers Wonder If It Would Be Better To Get Virus, Develop Immunity And Then Get Back To Work

ABC News: Immunity To COVID-19: Front Line Health Workers Consider Deliberate Infection 
As COVID-19 numbers climb precipitously, health care workers, first responders and the countless individuals working in "essential services" make a heroic decision: Do I come to work and put myself and my family at greater risk, or do I #StayAtHome? This decision is made harder by ongoing shortages of necessary personal protective equipment. As cases grow, the likelihood of each one of us contracting COVID-19 grows with it. Some front line workers have started to question if getting COVID-19 now would help them become immune, so that they can better cope with PPE shortages and higher threats of exposure. (Taghipour, 3/24)

NBC News: U.S. Hospitals Brace For Another Challenge — An Unprecedented Shortage Of Nurses
As hospitals around the country prepare for a surge of tens of thousands of coronavirus patients expected in the coming weeks, they are trying to fill thousands of "crisis" nursing jobs nationwide, particularly intensive care unit and emergency room positions. Even before the coronavirus outbreak, several states were experiencing nursing shortages, and without a dramatic increase in staffing, hospital administrators and advocates fear the health care system will not be able to handle the demand. (Fitzpatrick, McFadden, Whitman and Monahan, 3/24)

San Francisco Chronicle: ‘Exposure Is Inevitable’: Three Staff Members Test Positive For Coronavirus At Laguna Honda Hospital
Three employees at Laguna Honda, San Francisco’s huge city-run nursing home, have tested positive for the new coronavirus, raising the frightening possibility of a wider outbreak in the 750-person facility. But a medical professional who spoke to The Chronicle was told that even if people had direct contact with one of the infected health care workers, they might be tested for the coronavirus only if they show symptoms. (Fagone and Thadani, 3/24)

Politico: Health Workers Fear U.S. Hospitals Will Become Coronavirus Hot Spots
Doctors and nurses are increasingly worried they will become the spreaders of the coronavirus rather than the healers, as hospitals themselves become a hot spot for the pandemic. That fear is already a reality in Italy, the global epicenter of the pandemic, where researchers have found hospitals overloaded by coronavirus patients have become transmission points. Public health officials, like those at the World Health Organization, have increasingly warned that health care workers themselves could be vectors for the disease — accelerating its spread and undermining the ability of countries’ health systems to combat it. (Roubein and Luthi, 3/25)

ABC News: On The Front Lines Of Coronavirus Outbreak, Medical Workers Fear Rationing Of Masks Will Heighten Risks 
Doctors and nurses on the front lines of the battle against coronavirus are increasingly anguished over the hospital-imposed rationing of masks, gowns and other protective gear, restrictions they say are exposing them to unnecessary risks at the worst possible time. At Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis, nurses said they were being handed a single mask in a brown paper bag at the start of each shift and told to make it last. At Medstar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C., the more protective masks, known as N95s, are being kept in a locked room, according to one neurologist who agreed to speak anonymously about his growing unease. (Mosk, Meek and Abdelmalek, 3/24)

NPR: Retired Doctors And Medical Students Step Up To Fight COVID-19
When Dr. Judy Salerno, who is in her 60s, got word that the New York State health department was looking for retired physicians to volunteer in the coronavirus crisis, she didn't hesitate. "As I look to what's ahead for New York City, where I live, I'm thinking that if I can use my skills in some way that I will be helpful, I will step up," she says. (Simmons-Duffin, 3/25)

The New York Times: Coronavirus In Europe: Thousands Of Health Workers Out Of Action
Across Western Europe, health care professionals have used the language of war to describe the struggle against the coronavirus, which has left some hospitals on the brink of collapse.And health care workers are the soldiers on the front lines. Out of Spain’s 40,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, 5,400 — nearly 14 percent — are medical professionals, the health ministry said on Tuesday. No other country has reported health care staff accounting for a double-digit percentage of total infections. (Minder and Peltier, 3/24)

Kaiser Health News: Are Vital Home Health Workers Now A Safety Threat?
As a hospice nurse in Seattle, Diane Speer said giving out hugs to patients and family members was a routine part of home visits. But in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, she now tells family members to keep their distance. “There’s no touching hands or handshakes,” said Speer, who works for Renton, Washington-based Providence St. Joseph Health. It’s “time for a virtual hug.” (Galewitz, 3/25)

The New York Times: A Medical Class ‘Minted By The Pandemic’
Preparations for the Cadaver Ball, at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, begin in the fall. Radial Grooves, an a cappella group, selects two songs to perform; the campus hip-hop and bhangra groups choreograph routines. This year’s theme was the “Roaring 2020s,” which was a relief to the class president, Varun Menon, because it meant that the only costume he needed was a tuxedo. (Last year’s class president had the unfortunate task of tracking down a full P.T. Barnum get-up, when the theme was “The Greatest Show.”) But plans for the event, which celebrates the “matching” of fourth-year medical students to their residencies, were cut short this year. On March 10, students were notified by email that their match day ceremony would be virtual. The Cadaver Ball was canceled. (Goldberg, 3/24)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus Crisis Threatens To Shutter Doctors' Offices
As hospitals in California and across the country struggle with a surge of coronavirus infection patients, a second crisis is brewing in physicians’ offices, threatening to push the nation’s healthcare system further to the brink. Primary care physicians are being leaned on to keep patients out of hospitals, and to make do with limited protective equipment and other supplies. Yet they are seeing steep drop-offs in visits as patients stay away, fearful of getting ill. (Levey, 3/24)

NPR: As Coronavirus Spreads, Community Health Clinics Pivot To Help With Response
On Tuesday, the Trump administration announced $100 million in supplemental funding for community health centers to support the response to the coronavirus pandemic. "Health centers are playing a critical role," says James Macrae, associate administrator at the federal Bureau for Primary Health Care. About 29 million people in the U.S rely on community health centers, which provide care to low-income and uninsured patients. And they are under pressure to rapidly pivot to respond to the pandemic. (Stone, 3/24)

Reuters: Sewing Machines Become Latest Weapon Against Coronavirus As California Volunteers Swing Into Action
Smita Paul has been sewing scarves and clothing for her small fashion business since 2003 but ever since the coronavirus struck the Bay Area and created a shortage in personal protective equipment for hospital workers, she has switched from sewing scarves to sewing masks. (Frandino, Stapleton and Respaut, 3/24)

WBUR: Can The U.S. Crowdsource Its Way Out Of A Mask Shortage? No, But It Still Helps 
Given the overall crisis, scores of citizen-led donation groups are popping up across the country, including GetusPPE.org, DonatePPE.org, Mask Match and one to move gear from labs to hospitals called PPE Link. Then there's also a group of volunteers called Mask Crusaders who've set up ad hoc chapters in New York, Chicago, L.A., Seattle and elsewhere. The hastag #GetMePPE continues to trend across social media.They're asking contractors, nail salon owners, museums — anyone — to search their closets and storage bins for disposable nitrile gloves as well as masks. (Westervelt, 3/25)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Individuals, Businesses Volunteer To Produce Fabric Facemasks
As medical supplies grow scarcer in the face of the spreading coronavirus, health care workers on the frontline are most at risk.One mom in Michigan told The Associated Press her daughter, a nurse, had been required to keep the same medical mask on for her entire shift. “If nurses quit or become too fatigued or even become ill themselves, then we don’t have a frontline anymore,” the concerned mom said. (Elder, 3/24)

Reuters: Virus Fight At Risk As World's Medical Glove Capital Struggles With Lockdown
Disposable rubber gloves are indispensable in the global fight against the new coronavirus, yet a month’s lockdown in stricken Malaysia where three of every five gloves are made has upended the supply chain and threatens to hamstring hospitals worldwide. (Lee and Das, 3/25)