Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
The Battle Over PPE: Some Health Workers Feel They've Been Forced Out Of Work When They Are Needed Most
On March 31, Florida emergency room nurse Naomi Moya took a big risk. Though her hospital didn’t allow staff to wear N95 masks when treating patients who were not diagnosed with the coronavirus, Moya brought one from home and put it on to protect herself. A supervisor noticed the N95 right away and ordered her to remove it. (Allen, 4/18)
Beaumont Health in Michigan is one of many health systems across the country that have been forced to look at ways to reuse its supply of N95 respirator masks. It became clear in mid-March that the system’s inventory wouldn’t be enough to handle the surge of patients it was treating with COVID-19 symptoms. As of April 13, the eight-hospital system has treated more than 1,600 patients with the virus. (Castellucci, 4/18)
Hospitals across the U.S. are facing a shortage of N95 masks amid the coronavirus pandemic, putting health care workers at increased risk of infection. The health crisis has brought Peter Tsai, the material scientist and engineer who developed the mask's virus-blocking technology, out of retirement to study safe ways to disinfect the single-use masks for reuse — nearly 30 years after his invention. (Bowman, 4/17)
And in other health care worker news —
Young students just finishing medical schools across the U.S. and Europe are being rushed into hospitals overwhelmed by the new coronavirus to combat a global health catastrophe. Many are forgoing final elective classes, logging onto Zoom or Webex to recite the Hippocratic oath and donning protective gear to begin their careers, often in areas far from the specialties they plan to pursue. (Harley-Mckeown and Korn, 4/18)
Sometime that first night, after stacking another dead body into a refrigerated truck, Jim Mullen decided he wouldn’t tell his wife everything. Gina is a worrier, and deep down he knew she didn’t agree with this. He had his own reasons for departing Dallas for New York on a volunteer nursing assignment April 3. But he hadn’t just left his wife alone to care for their 2-year-old daughter. (Babb, 4/18)
Some hospital workers are staying away from their families to protect their kids. Others are living in the same house and taking extra precautions to avoid passing along the virus. Many children of nurses and doctors are navigating the unpredictability of life without regular school, along with the stress of worrying about their parents. Here's a look inside the lives of four families' kids. (Khokha and Ehsanipour, 4/17)
