Gabrielle Dawn Luna sees her father in every patient she treats.
As an emergency room nurse in the same hospital where her father lay dying of Covid last March, Ms. Luna knows firsthand what it’s like for a family to hang on to every new piece of information. She’s become acutely aware of the need to take extra time in explaining developments to a patient’s relatives who are often desperate for updates.
And Ms. Luna has been willing to share her personal loss if it helps, as she did recently with a patient whose husband died. But she has also learned to withhold it to respect each person’s distinct grief, as she did when a colleague’s father also succumbed to the disease.
Pandemic Forces F.D.A. to Sharply Curtail Drug Company Inspections
The steep decline in oversight has stalled a number of new drug applications. The agency says it is trying to protect its employees but critics say inspectors should be considered essential workers and do their jobs.
The F.D.A. conducted more than 1,671 inspections of foreign and domestic drug manufacturing facilities in 2019. Last year, that number dropped by more than half, to 742. Credit.Ariana Lindquist/Bloomberg
March 9, 2021
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced the Food and Drug Administration to postpone hundreds of drug company inspections, creating an enormous backlog that is delaying new drug approvals and leading the industry to warn of impending shortages of existing medicines.
Hunting for a Leftover Vaccine? This Site Will Match You With a Clinic.
More than half a million people have signed up for Dr. B, a service that promises to match them with clinics struggling to equitably dole out extra doses before they expire.
Allison Ingram, a pharmacist, administered the Moderna Covid vaccine to Thomas Black at Cornerstone Pharmacy - Rodney Parham in Little Rock, Ark., on Monday.Credit.Rory Doyle for The New York Times
March 9, 2021
In the hustle to score an elusive vaccine appointment, the leftover dose has become the stuff of pandemic lore.
Extra shots which must be used within hours once taken out of cold storage have been doled out to drugstore customers buying midnight snacks, people who are friends with nurses and those who show up at closing time at certain grocery stores and pharmacies. At some larger vaccination sites, the race to use every dose sets off a flurry of end-of-the-day phone calls.