Jae C. Hong/AP
toggle caption Jae C. Hong/AP
A traveler adjusts her mask while waiting to check in for her flight at the Los Angeles International Airport on Nov. 23. Jae C. Hong/AP
As Thanksgiving approached, Americans were bombarded with warnings that holiday travel and gatherings would bring a surge on top of a surge setting the country on a precarious path as it entered the next round of holidays in late December.
Three weeks later, many places are now contending with a wave of infections that local health authorities say were fueled by the Thanksgiving holiday, although some regions appear to have evaded a dramatic rise, at least so far.
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Nurses speak on burnout and PTSD as COVID-19 hospitalizations in US reach new highs
As the Democrats and Republicans and news media hail the release of new vaccines, the reality facing health care workers battling the current surge of COVID-19 cases is one of death, exhaustion, burnout and fear.
While a vaccine should be celebrated, data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) shows that the rolling out of the vaccine will lower the projected deaths by April 1 by only 10,000. Considering the US is projected to see another 215,000 people die from the virus by the beginning of March, it is clear that immediate emergency measures must be implemented to stop the explosive spread of the pandemic and save hundreds of thousands of lives. This includes the shutdown of nonessential production and schools and providing compensation for all those affected by an emergency lockdown.
Look closely, through the face shield, over the mask. You’ll see it.
“Walk around the hospital, you can see the fatigue in people’s eyes,” said Dr. Roy Werner, director of the emergency department at Roseland Community Hospital on the Far South Side. “We have an entire staff of physicians, nurses, tech staff, housekeepers, working harder than they have ever had to work.”
Eight months into the COVID-19 pandemic, with a vaccine tantalizingly near but still not in hand, the relentlessness of fighting the virus the endless stream of patients, the round-the-clock shifts, the deaths, the need to plug holes in the schedule created by sick colleagues is grinding down hospital workers.