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Now, as President-elect Joe Biden prepares to take office under the shadow of interlocking public health and economic crises, I am one of many advocates hoping that he will elevate a new issue as a presidential priority by appointing a czar for caregiving. The coronavirus has laid bare what was painfully clear to many families already: The caregiving system in the United States is broken, and it is women who are paying the price. (Melinda Gaters, 12/3)

Men who thought the COVID-19 “she-cession” was misnamed should take a look at the recent figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. After disproportionately losing jobs during the early shutdown, women are now leaving the workforce at nearly four times the rate of men. With so many women laid off, sidelined or stepping away to manage remote schooling or care for their families, men have to stand up as allies to ensure that gender equality in the workplace isn’t set back a generation. (W. Brad Johnson and David G. Smith, 12/3)

Dear President Trump, In response to your retweet about the “fake” hospital in Nevada, let me assure you, there is nothing fabricated about it. Here in Northern Nevada — just like much of the nation — we are suffering from an alarming spike in COVID-19. Fortunately, many people who get the disease are minimally ill or even asymptomatic. However, some are quite sick and require the hospital. Some of these will require the ICU. And as we are seeing, many are dying every day. In November alone, Washoe County lost 80 people to the virus. After you have finished hitting golf balls, playing on your phone and watching TV, perhaps you and the others in the rear echelon will visit. Come see for yourself the despair and death. (Gregory A. Juhl, 12/2)

The ability to maximize living out one’s golden years is a principal promise of the American Dream. Before the outbreak of coronavirus, there were many challenges facing our seniors’ ability to do so — the high cost of prescription drugs, the need to preserve and protect Social Security and Medicare and more, but, unfortunately, the outbreak of coronavirus has only created more challenges for our nation’s older Americans. (Rep. Zeldin, 12/2)

“I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and Panaceia and all the gods and goddesses,” the Hippocratic Oath begins in unpronounceable syllables, “that I will fulfill … this oath and this covenant.”The oath is brief (doctors don’t have a lot of spare time), and full of honorable trumpets in the background. It is also full of higher purpose. In only a few sentences, the needs of humanity are crystalized. Attention is sworn to their care. Reciting it is thrilling.“For the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment, I will keep them from harm and injustice,” one translation of the oath says. Another puts it a little differently: “Whatever house I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice.” Caregivers are owed a covenant, too; someone needs to care for them in a time when they have become (sometimes to their own surprise) exhausted, demoralized, petrified for their families, and fatigued by death due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Elissa Ely, 12/3)

COVID-19 cases and deaths are breaking records around the country, and already traumatized health care workers are bracing for this onslaught with dread. A nurse who worked in New York during the first surge told us, “Nobody lived, that I know of. I don’t feel like I actually helped anybody.” Another clinician said that, in just one night, there could be a “code blue” called every 15 minutes, signifying a patient with cardiac arrest: “Every time there was code, it was basically a patient dying.” (Lingsheng Li and Elizabeth Dzeng, 12/2)