A weekly radio show is called spectrum if you would like and new information on the crown of virus or any other science topic you should really check out our podcast so you can get it wherever you get your podcasts you can also find us at d. F. W. Dot com slash science. Theyre on the front lines of the Coronavirus CrisisHealth Care Workers testing the limits of human enjoy. Even making the ultimate sacrifice. The risk. And in my wildest dreams i never imagined. How devastating hard it would be. After the struggle to contain the pandemic what will it mean for health care systems. The people who wrote them. Welcome to this coverage 19 special on robots in berlin its good to have you with us the burden of tackling a Global Health crisis has fallen more heavily on the shoulders of one group than any other the worlds Health Care Workers are dealing with death and disease on a daily basis risking their own health at the same time and not always with the level of protection that they need. He waves goodbye to his colleagues at the end of his shift all of your labor which has been a nurse for 30 years he works in one of the largest hospitals in paris the. Right in the city center label which looks after up to 12 patients a day on the geriatric ward his net income is 1735. 00 euros per month for months now theres been virtually no time at all to pause for a break. Im the only one working at my station and have to do everything myself there are doctors and other nurses but theres a lot to do i hardly get a break i barely have enough time for a cup of coffee in the afternoon. Hes witnessed how the coronavirus pandemic pushed the French Health care system to the brink there were dramatic scenes at hospitals with shortages of all types of supplies ventilators personal protective equipment masks medical staff worked courageously pushing themselves to sheer exhaustion many hospital workers became sick themselves and some even died the system nearly collapsed. We were not prepared for such a wave of pandemic not at this intensity or duration. Olivier level which agrees after budget cuts and reforms french hospitals were left with insufficient emergency room capacity and not enough staff doctors and nurses had to work around the clock all the covert 1000 crisis made working conditions even worse im not the only one all of us notice just how badly things in france have deteriorated. The response every night at 8 the french have gone out onto their balconies to applaud medical workers a movement that spread across the country during the stringent lockdown musical performances mobilized entire neighborhoods people were conscious of the crisis playing out in the hospitals. In manila mark long admitted mistakes were made hospital budget cuts had been too drastic it ministration to sluggish to react staff to poorly paid now c g t the Health Care Workers union is calling for raises of at least 300. 00 euros and for the retirement age to be lowered to 55. 00 all of your labor if it supports this. We need more Funding Resources and personnel but above all else we need higher wages. So hes off to protest even though the french government has just promised to increase wages considerably and reform the health care system. Well lets speak to Professor James booker hes editor in chief of the publication Human Resources for health and speaks to us from as a professor a book and this really has been a tough time for healthcare workers even beyond the sheer volume of patients having to deal with doesnt it. Very much so what covert has done is expose any weaknesses in how systems and Health Workforce numbers and ploy. Were coming out of the initial impact of coode with many workforce problems that existed before it could impact. And the sort of problems weve been seeing are also the Health Implications for the workers themselves some countries doing a better job of protecting their work because than others weve seen that in the figures havent we we have Health Workers are at the front line they are a high risk of exposure the International Council of nurses which is done some good work and not all i see the variation in infection rates suggests one of rich about 7 percent of nurses have been affected across the front 30 countries the other day 84 without varies from below one percent in secure poor up to about 20 percent in spain and in the countries that are on the wrong side of those numbers have anything in common is a case of p. P. A. Is a case of understaffing to reno i think there are several contributory factors its always difficult to isolate one and uses it feel guilty of p. P. Was a big problem and continues to be a problem in some countries us heightened risk of exposure where there are being shortage in stuff individuals about to work close to patients for longer or for longer periods of time another has also been heightening the risk of exposure what about Health Systems themselves from seen them performing to varying different degrees around the world all that particular models of Health System that have shown themselves to be effective in a pandemic like this. I dont think its specific for mortal guarantees success but i think you can point to systems which are of a localized flexible willet see to respond to differential impacts in different parts of the country just being one of which is better suited top dont overly centralized one i think we will see this become even more of an issue i spikes could occur within countries is the ability to respond quickly locally there will be what is required trying to deal with this next phase and for the types of systems where it may be hasnt worked as well as it could have is there a positive outlook because presumably if youve been underfunding your system thus far youre not now financially in a better position to do it given the effective coronavirus on economies kudos to expose the gaps in Health Systems and whole systems one day i know you see the risk know is that the countries that have been worst hit by a coup or those who also need to find more resources to meet goods like economic damage. There is a double whammy there high imperative koop gud most negative impact on the economy of professor hawking has been fascinating talking to you thanks for your time thats Professor James burke and editor in chief of Human Resources for health thank you very much and now is a part of the program where you get to ask the questions as our science correspondent derrick williams. Can covert 19 cause bad breath. This can be caused by a wide range of different factors from inadequate dental hygiene to to a more serious underlying condition but the w. H. O. Doesnt list it as a symptom for covert 19 however there is an interesting connection between bad breath and the virus mouthwash sales have spiked during the pandemic which i guess was to be expected i mean plenty of people probably hope that using mouth wash is regularly will have a preventative effect even though there is currently no evidence that garbling with them protects you either that or or breathing into a mask all the time has made people hyper aware of how their own breath smells. Can you catch coded 19 from drinking unfiltered tap water. Theres no evidence you can get covert 19 from drinking treated water and the risk of transmission through water in general even untreated wastewater appears to be very low even when the viruses genetic material can be detected in untreated water in most cases its probably not viable thats because sars cove 2 is whats called an envelop virus which means it has a pretty fragile membrane that doesnt really protect it for very long outside the body so this is standard treatment methods used in most municipal Drinking Water systems like like filtration and disinfection should inactivated just like they do other pathogens if you dont have access to safe treated water then then the standard precautions. That you tape like like boiling your Drinking Water should also kill any source code to. Why does cambodia have no deaths from coated 19. As of this morning at least there have still been only around 140 cases of covert 19 reported in cambodia and not a single official death no with a record like that theres of course a lot of speculation in the country is under reporting none of it confirmed but if the official numbers are accurate then then cambodia has has a remarkable record so far as does neighboring vietnam both countries have been praised by the w. H. O. For for how they detected and responded to new cases at a very early stage of the pandemic with extensive contacts tracing travel restrictions and quarantines as early as january time when when most other countries werent willing to even consider them at the time those measures were viewed as as extreme but retrospective lee they looked like something that that everyone should have been doing. As a science correspondent dr williams now theyve certainly proven that with during the coronavirus pandemic but many Health Care Workers remain some of the least well paid in their societies resistance to that fact is growing not least in spain around 10000. 00 nurses station demonstration on monday against the levels of pay and temporary contracts and they made that point with a moving rendition of the eightys pop song. Which translates as i will resist enjoy the music this has been the coming 1000. 00 special thanks for joining us. Because. In this new season. Of the bremen still the relegation. Zone stuff lesson. Just a definitely out of things. To come a. Massive drama competition why the marketing number was here by that time and. Money millionaire fans friends 5 stamps and. Because we love. To go off on you tube joining us. My smile is. Like. 2 things he. Painted me. On. Some snakes food they used to look at. My son says. I am so over the bridge and. The secret of the massage. 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