Tag: pandemic

Inspector general finds hospitals face ‘severe’ shortages of needed coronavirus supplies

The Hill logoHospitals across the country reported serious shortages of tests and protective equipment in the fight against coronavirus and concerns about being able to keep health workers safe, according to a new inspector general report.

The report from the Department of Health and Human Services inspector general released Monday found “severe” shortages of tests for hospitals to use and “widespread” shortfalls of protective equipment, known as PPE, to keep health workers safe.

“Hospitals reported that widespread shortages of PPE put staff and patients at risk,” stated the report conducted March 23-27. It consisted of interviews with administrators from 323 randomly selected hospitals across the country.  Continue reading.

Another Huge Helping Of Corporate Welfare For Wall Street

To say that these are unprecedented times would be the understatement of the century. Even as the United States became the latest target of Hurricane COVID-19, in “hot spots” around the globe a continuing frenzy of health concerns represented yet another drop down the economic rabbit hole.

Stay-at-home orders have engulfed the planet, encompassing a majority of Americans, all of India, the United Kingdom, and much of Europe. A second round of cases may be starting to surface in China. Meanwhile, small- and medium-sized businesses, not to speak of giant corporate entities, are already facing severe financial pain.

I was in New York City on 9/11 and for the weeks that followed. At first, there was a sense of overriding panic about the possibility of more attacks, while the air was still thick with smoke. A startling number of lives were lost and we all did feel that we had indeed been changed forever. Continue reading.

Health experts call for Roosevelt-style programs to kill virus, revive economy

The Hill logoA first-of-its-kind program that will deploy almost a thousand people across Massachusetts may be a small-scale test of what public health experts hope could eventually stamp out the coronavirus even before a vaccine becomes widely available.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) said Friday that his state would join with Partners In Health, a Boston-based global health nonprofit, to turn staffers into contact tracers, the backbone of any robust public health effort to squelch a deadly disease.

Those contact tracers will interview people who have been infected with the coronavirus to determine who around them might also have been exposed. Those who may have been exposed will be warned to watch for symptoms themselves, giving public health officials a window into how the coronavirus is spreading and who might next be at risk. Continue reading.

Barring Church Services Isn’t Religious Persecution

With most Americans staying home as much as possible and avoiding other people like, well, the plague, it’s surprising to learn that some churches are holding Sunday services to bring parishioners together to worship. Even more surprising, some states are letting them.

On Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who had refused to close the state’s beaches to spring break revelers, finally issued a stay-at-home order. It exempts people who must venture outside to “obtain or provide essential services or conduct essential activities.” High on his list of essential activities: “attending religious services conducted in churches, synagogues and houses of worship.”

Most of the nation’s clergy do not see packing pews as defensible, much less essential, during this pandemic. Most have shifted to virtual worship, so their members don’t transmit or contract a disease that can kill. The faithful can also find spiritual sustenance in prayer, Bible reading or helping those in need. Continue reading.

A pulmonologist who’s recovering from coronavirus describes what it feels like to survive COVID-19’s dreaded ‘cytokine storm’

AlterNet logoOf all the possible compounding effects of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, the cytokine storm is one of the most feared. An immune system overreaction in which the body is flooded with the eponymous signaling molecules, those who suffer a cytokine storm are at risk of dying at the hand of their own immune system, as an indirect effect of the virus they are fighting.

This is the opposite of how we think of our immune system working: if we have a good, strong immune system, we should be safe from the novel coronavirus, right? Unfortunately in this case, too much of a good thing is not a good thing. This is true beyond the example of the cytokine storm, as there are other diseases, often milder ones, caused by a misbehaving immune system; lupus, allergic reactions and celiac disease are all examples of overactive immune responses.

The cytokine storm affects a substantial number of severe COVID-19 patient, enough that it has become the subject of a subset of medical research into COVID-19. Those unlucky enough to experience a cytokine storm will feel cytokines, the immune system helper cells, flood their bodies and especially their lungs as their immune system struggles to fight off the invading virus and the dead lung cells it produces en masse. The overreaction results in the immune system building up too many of these kinds of cells, which can lead to respiratory distress or bacterial pneumonia and ultimately death. Continue reading.

Acting Navy chief fired Crozier for ‘panicking’ — and before Trump could intervene

Washington Post logoActing Navy secretary Thomas Modly, in an extensive interview about the firing of the commander of a disease-threatened aircraft carrier, said he acted because he believed the captain was “panicking” under pressure — and wanted to make the move himself, before President Trump ordered the captain’s dismissal.

“I didn’t want to get into a decision where the president would feel that he had to intervene because the Navy couldn’t be decisive,” Modly told me in a telephone call from Hawaii at about 1 a.m. Sunday, Washington time. He continued: “If I were president, and I saw a commanding officer of a ship exercising such poor judgment, I would be asking why the leadership of the Navy wasn’t taking action itself.”

Modly offered a lengthy account of his actions in the dismissal Thursday of Capt. Brett Crozier, the commanding officer of the USS Theodore Roosevelt. The nuclear-power aircraft carrier with a crew of about 4,800 had been stricken by an outbreak of the novel coronavirus. On March 30, Crozier sent an emotional email pleading for help, which leaked the next day. Two days after that, Modly fired him — generating criticism from former senior military officials, who expressed deep concern about the impact of the precipitous act on morale and on commanders’ willingness to speak out with unwelcome news. Continue reading.

‘You’re basically right next to the nuclear reactor.’

Washington Post logoCory Deburghgraeve, on performing one of the pandemic’s most dangerous jobs

I could be the last person some of these patients ever see, or the last voice they hear. A lot of people will never come off the ventilator. That’s the reality of this virus. I force myself to think about that for a few seconds each time I walk into the ICU to do an intubation.

This is my entire job now. Airways. Coronavirus airways. I’m working 14 hours a night and six nights a week. When patients aren’t getting enough oxygen, I place a tube down their airway so we can put them on a vent. It buys their body time to fight the virus. It’s also probably the most dangerous procedure a doctor can do when it comes to personal exposure. I’m getting within a few inches of the patient’s face. I’m leaning in toward the mouth, placing my fingers on the gums, opening up the airway. All it takes is a cough. A gag. If anything goes badly, you can have a room full of virus.

So, there’s a possibility I get sick. Maybe a probability. I don’t know. I have my own underlying condition when it comes to this virus, but I try not to dwell on that. Continue reading.

Trump, officials describe ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ as cases mount

The Hill logoPresident Trump on Sunday struck a more optimistic tone about the country’s progress in its effort to combat the coronavirus even as some of his top health officials predicted the coming week would be akin to Pearl Harbor or the 9/11 attacks in terms of its impact.

“We see light at the end of the tunnel. Things are happening,” Trump said during a White House coronavirus task force briefing. “We’re starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. And hopefully in the not too distant future we’ll be very proud of the job we all did. You can never be happy when so many people are dying, but we’re going to be very proud of the job we did to keep the death down to an absolute minimum.”

The president and other members of the task force sought to assure the public that the country may be close to getting through the worst of the pandemic. While Trump spoke of a “light at the end of the tunnel,” Vice President Pence identified “glimmers of hope,” and coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx said data from Italy was giving the U.S. “hope for what our future could be.” Continue reading.

Politics Through the Looking Glass: Virus Scrambles the Left-Right Lines

New York Times logoThe 2020 edition of the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Md., in February offered a theme-park version of what was to be President Trump’s re-election message: Under the banner of “America vs. Socialism,” the convention featured anti-Marx branded popcorn, an RV emblazed with the words “Socialism Takes Capitalism Creates” and a children’s book promoting personal freedom and private-property rights.

Speeches included tirades against big government and “Medicare for all.”

“The virus is not going to sink the American economy,” the president’s chief economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, told a packed auditorium. “What is or could sink the American economy is the socialism coming from our friends on the other side of the aisle.” Mr. Trump, the keynote speaker, proclaimed, “We are defeating the radical, socialist Democrats” who “want total control.” Continue reading.

Scott Gottlieb becomes key voice warning Trump, GOP on coronavirus

The Hill logoScott Gottlieb has seen his national profile grow amid the coronavirus outbreak as the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner becomes a leading voice from outside the administration on how to tackle the worst health epidemic the country may ever have faced.

Gottlieb, a 47-year-old physician, has become a regular presence on cable news shows, and his Twitter account is widely followed by journalists, health policy experts and politicians.

He’s maintained a line to the White House throughout the pandemic, and although his early warnings went unheeded, he hasn’t bludgeoned the administration with criticism but has offered sharp words for officials and states when he has disagreed with their policies.  Continue reading.